


With the Dawn come Light and Hope

by Sildurin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, CIty of Kobe, Cop!Keith, Corpses, Drinking, Fights, Gentle Sex, Guns, Happy Ending, Hotel Sex, Injury, M/M, Masturbation, Minor Character Death, Scars, Yakuza!Shiro, as in a bar, higher rating due to smaller fights and occasional deaths, minor group characters mentioned, the tags are a bit jumbled huh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 58,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23497072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sildurin/pseuds/Sildurin
Summary: In the city of Kobe, two major Yakuza groups are supposed to have a deal with each other. But something went wrong during the transaction of documents, resulting in the need of investigations by the local police officers.
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 44





	1. Wind Graveyard

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had the idea of a yakuza story for a very long time in my mind. It took a while to put everything together, create the characters, and so on, and, uh, actually write everything down. (Took longer since my arm was injured as well.)  
> But here we are!  
> I'm not quite sure if the yakuza world is depicted as I actually wanted. Some scenes might be more detailed than others. I wanted to show the care and responsibility the group leader have for their groups and with this Shiro, who has a deeper connection to his group than others.  
> And of course there is Keith, who has a different kind of responsibility but nevertheless cares as much for the people around him.   
> Edit : oh my god I corrected the typo in the title oops!.. 
> 
> The story is finished, which means I will upload it bit by bit. I'm currently re-reading and erasing (hopefully) every typo and logical mistakes, haha.

It was the 12th of August, in the middle of typhoon season.

A storm was running wild over the coast and town of Kobe. The howling wind clashed brutally against the raw metal of the container which were stationed in the second harbour of Kobe, known as the _Wind Graveyard_. This harbour was located some kilometers to the east outside of the city and was simply used for practical reasons as the accessibility for big ships and liner was easier.

It had always been a place for underground people to meet. There were barely any interruptions by the well observant police officers, who controlled the city itself quite well.

Though, it was murderous to be here during summer due to the unbearable heat between the giant metal walls. Following the heat, there was the typhoon sesason with it's heavy rain and crashing waves of gusts rolling over the near ocean. And then there was winter with icy winds and frost bitten fingers, not speaking of several unknown death to be confirmed whenever the frozen water was melting during spring, thus making non of the seasons a good season really. It was never safe to begin with. Spring might be the most promising, apart from several lost re-found bodies.

The meeting place in the _Wind Graveyard_ was mostly liked by the Yakuza as they would come here to manage their deals or distribute their goods with said container. There were also cases were more than one group was meeting up with another; just like this day.

Three men were waiting in the rain, wearing dark coats which's shoulders were already soaked. One of them stood a bit up front so that it looked as if he wanted to form a triangle, indicating the order of precedence. An umbrella was held up by one of the suordinates to protect the leader of their group from the constant rain; but it was no use, the storm was too strong. Nevertheless, he tried to protect him as best as he could manage.

A second group appeared from somewhere between the walls of the container, approaching them. There were three men, wearing black coats, gloves, and umbrellas, which seemed to be under more control than those of the awaiting group.

The two organisations walked towards each other, keeping their triangular formations as they came to a halt between a giant red and a huge grey container which withstood the heavy masses of rain pouring down on their heads.

When they finally stood in front of each other, non of them said a word. The leader of the waiting side was a middle-aged man with black hair, cut above his ears, and dark eyes which were constanly fixated on the other group. His comrades faces were hidden in the collars of their coats.

The second group's leader was a younger man with short grey, nearly white hair, grey eyes and a buff body build. His eyes seemed calm, nearly relaxed, as they watched the opposing group's members, the container and the falling rain. His eyes glanced towards his two fellows: a huge man with an even bigger body type than his own and cloaked face. The other was smaller, nevertheless tall, with big ears and glowing eyes. His chin was covered by a small beard.

The white haired man watched his subordinates before gazing at the distant lights of the red _Port_ _T_ _ower_ in the touristic harbour, which were blinking in the darkness of the afternoon. It was only 4 P.M. but the thick clouds made it look a lot later.

"Do you have it with you?" The black haired leader asked, his voice strong against the wind.

The white haired man nodded once towards the bearded man, who reached inside his coat and fetched an envelope covered with a plastic wrapping.

The black haired man seemed relieved. He himself gave an order and a second envelope was revealed by one of his fellows.

"Just as we agreed on it," he said.

"Indeed," the white haired man said, his voice still calm.

"I wonder why Shirogane-sama sent out his second in command instead of choosing someone else. This is about exchanging the main documents about the deal, isn't it? A simple task." A light smile was on the lips of the black haired man, his face seemed relaxed and honestly curious.

The white haired man frowned. "Of course someone else could have done this as well, but my boss decided to entrust _me_ with this job. Since those documents are important."

"I see, I see. I don't see any problems here, Shirogane-san," he said with a strong undertone in his voice, pronouncing the name. It made the furrow between Shirogane's eyes even deeper. "We all decided on this deal together and now it's time to set things right."

"Truly," Shirogane said. "I wonder if you deem your words wise, Keta-san. But I might question you why Sendak sent his subordinates instead of coming here personally. As I'm informed, he is part of this deal with us, isn't he?"

Keta became a bit pale and his eyes showed a hunch of fear. "Sendak-sama is no longer part of this deal, but someone else who took over his position. Besides, they had their own reasons of choosing me instead of them. They may have better things to do as waisting their time in this damn graveyard."

Shirogane chuckled. "I can imagine." He observed the heavy clouds above their heads. "I wish this deal would be easier to deal with."

"What do you mean by this, Shirogane-san? We're here to exchange our collected data to set the conditions each of us had."

"True. But I wonder why I have a certain feeling that something about all of this is not going to be as planned."

"I don't understand. We were supposed to..." Keta stumbled, irritation and anger in his eyes.

"You _betrayed_ us, Keta-san, and I wish you would be able to tell your master personally that we figured it out. Unfortunately, he isn't here with us which is why he will read about this in the news the next morning." Shirogane sighed and tilted his head while his eyes were still fixed on Keta.

"Sir, I don't..."

"Antok," Shirogane said, his voice lower than before.

"Yes, Sir." Antok, the tallest of the three, reached for his hip and pulled out an 8mm _Shine_ revolver, it's hard metal glistening in the rain and fainted lights.

"Shirogane-san! What are you doing? We weren't supposed to come armed and..." Keta nearly screamed. His eyes were full of sharp fear and panic.

A thunder rolled heavily above their heads, it's rumbling reveberating within their broken voices.

"Shoot them," Shirogane said calmly, ignoring every shout of protest and irritation.

"Shiroga-!!"

They weren't fast enough to react, nor could they move accordingly. They didn't bring any weapons, they had come with hope for a deal but not for death.

Three resounding and quick shots were fired, one after the other. The echo was still living as the three man collapsed, already dead, blood running down from their foreheads.

Shirogane sighed, his eyes suddenly sad and disappointed. Then he noticed that one of the supposed-to-be-dead bodies moved an arm and flinched. It was Keta.

Antok grunted, aimed once more and shot. The movement stopped and Keta's head seemed to be heavier than before, although already resting on the cold ground.

"Damn it," Shirogane cursed. "I hate to kill people like that."

"I apologise, Sir."

"Wasn't your fault. It's the intel we got which left us no other way."

"Sir?" This time it was Thace who asked.

Shirogane didn't move as he was still observing the three dead men in front of him. His subordinates waited silently, but their leader didn't answer the question.

Silently, Antok took out a fabric tissue and cleaned the gun and the shot's residues on his wrist and black leather gloves, before storing everything back.

Shirogane turned up his collar and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black coat, before turning around, smiling weakly at his fellows.

"We need to leave," he said. "The police will come once they are informed by the _Madoushi_ group. I guess they will give them a call when they don't come back after a certain time."

A deep furrow grew between his brows and anger brewed inside his eyes.

This wasn't what they had wanted at all. But their informant had been sure that this deal wasn't going to take action anyway, considering the murder which the _Madoushi_ group had planned all along. Killing those three men gave Shirogane and the others the oppurtunity to protect their own group.

Shirogane walked away from the crime scene. Antok and Thace nodded and followed the leader of their small group the same way they had come before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there is anything you want to tell me, feel free to do so.  
> I'm happy about every comment :)
> 
> [tumblr](http://sildurin.tumblr.com/)  
> [twitter](http://twitter.com/sildurin/)  
> 


	2. The Blade of Marmora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Antok, and Thace return to the headquarter to report the incident.

Once they had reached _Sannomiya_ , one of the main stations of Kobe, they drove into a narrow street leading to the district just opposite the station. The street was wide enough for their black Mercedes and thus they drove past some buildings. Most of them were equipped with the occasional flowers, balconies with drying laundry, or small trees and bushes in their tiny garden rows. Smaller shops sold vegetables and fruits out of baskets and at a corner was a _Family Mart_ with the familiar green and blue signs.

Shirogane frowned as they drove by, still lost in thoughts of the current events. His eyes followed the fronts of the surrounding buildings he knew so well. They were neither new nor especially old or rundown. They were _well used_ , as their leader meant to say. Shirogane had grown up here, knowing every corner and every detail there was in this small square of Kobe.

The car drove to a garage door which was opened by a remote control they had inside the car. Once the door was fully open, Antok drove the car inside and clicked the button of the remote once more, closing the gate behind them.

In the relatively big garage, which had space enough for at least three big cars, Shirogane and Thace got out of the group's black Mercedes while Antok stayed inside to park the car poperly.

It was still evening, the ride back from the _Wind Graveyard_ hadn't even lasted for an hour. They needed to return and tell their leader what had happened. His order had been performed but they needed to discuss the next step. The _Madoushi_ group wouldn't stand still for the next time after they had just killed three of their members.

The headquarter of their group – which was called the _Blade of Marmora_ – was located in this building complex they were about to enter. Shirogane, as well as the other two, knew the way through some secret passages before they reached the inner core where the leader was actually living among some fellow Blades.

Shirogane knocked on a heavy door which was the last border between the outer and less secured rooms and passages, to the inner rooms of their sanctum. No one ever had come in here without an invitation or being at least tied and blindfolded. Maybe Shirogane himself was the only exception, but this was before their group had gained in status and numbers of members.

There were cameras controlling the incoming group with sensors, meant to detect unknown weapons, before the final door was opened to let them in.

"Welcome back, Sir." A huge man welcomed them, bowing once Shirogane came in.

"Thanks, Regris."

Normally, he would say more of a greeting and tell him about the heavy rain and the beautiful view they had had from the _Wind Graveyard_ onto the city. But the smell of fresh rain mixed with blood was still in his nostrils and that's why Shirogane kept quiet. He went further into the inner building, passed a corridor until the group of three reached a metal door containing some wooden carvings of a giant eagle in the middle, the symbol of their leader.

Shirogane knocked which was followed by a clear "Come in, Son".

They stepped inside.

The room was relatively dark, the lights were dimmed, only shining onto the desk in the middle of the room and the cupboards, filled with documents, books and instruments. The ground was covered with a heavy carpet and there were no windows since this room was located in the very middle of their headquarters. Otherwise, this room was relatively empty, leaving a somewhat neutral atmosphere.

Behind the desk sat the leader of the _Blades_ , his massive statue carried by a wide wooden chair which's design fit perfectly to the desk and carvings of the door. He had white long hair which was braided and hung down on the back of his head, curling in his hood like a white abandoned snake. Red tatoos formed soft patterns on his halfly shaved scalp. A scar crossed the left side of his face, running from his temple down to his chin. It gave him a wild appearance. He wore a dark blue cloak which covered his broad shoulders and massive torso.

He didn't only seem like the leader since everything on him, from his stern bright eyes over his scars to his broad figure, was basically hinting it directly.

"Sir," Shirogane said and bowed. He stood in front of the desk now, Thace next to him and a step behind. "We fulfilled the order. The bodies were left behind as you demanded."

The leader's glowing eyes were fixated onto some documents on his desk, but as soon as Shirogane had finished, he looked up slowly.

"I see," he said, his voice dark and focused. "I appreciate your work." He nodded towards Thace and Antok who bowed in reply.

"The bodies will be found by the police soon enough," Shirogane said.

"I bet they wanted to make sure that we can't go out of this easily." The leader chuckled with his deep voice. "Well, we expected this. Otherwise we would've drowned them in Kobe Bay already." His eyes fixated the second in command for a while. "You're nervous," he stated.

Shirogane sighed. "Of course. The cops will know that it was our group. They will come and interrogate us. There is no proper way to work aorund this."

"For sure. But you forget that we had the intel we would be betrayed by the _Madoushi_ group. And not only that but a threat against you, Son. We can't let this pass by either."

"I understand. They also told us that Sendak is no longer in charge of the deal."

The leader hummed, his temple furrowing. "Who else?"

"They didn't tell us."

"I see."

Shirogane sighed. "What do we do now?"

"Did you leave any traces?"

Thace shook his head and Shirogane said: "No, Sir."

"Alright. First, we'll wait and see which steps the police will take. The corpses will be found soon, that's for sure and then..."

"But, Sir," Shirogane interrupted his leader who frowned slightly. Thace twitched. Shirogane was the only one would who was allowed to disturb the leader's speech. "Can't we ask the police to..."

"No."

"Why?"

"We can't rely on the cops anymore. The law has changed, Shiro, we can't do this anymore."

"Because you don't trust them." Shirogane said.

The leader looked at him for a long time, before he decided not to answer this opinion.

"You may leave, Thace, Antok. Have a good night's rest."

"Sir." The two of them bowed once more and left the room.

Now, it became quiet, even quieter than before. The lamp was buzzing and there was the dull sound of people speaking or clattering from the nearby kitchen.

Shirogane was still standing, frowning and thinking about a solution of what to do. He didn't fear his leader, he could speak up whenever since he had the trust and loyality earned from his leader as well as from the fellow _Blades_.

Slowly, the leader stood up and surrounded the table until he stood in front of his son. He put a hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Welcome back, Takashi."

Shiro snickered at this informal greeting. But then he became quiet and smiled. "I'm home, Kolivan," he said.

Kolivan nodded. "Let us think about this for a while before taking action. And please, promise me to not find any help from the police. They are tied to their laws. The old times are indeed old. There is no way they could help us with being tricked dirty."

Shiro nodded. "Is there any sign from the assassin which should've have come to kill me?" He bit his lip, fearing that it was indeed the truth their intel told.

"There were some people luring outside of our headquarters for a couple of hours. We frightened them a little bit and now they're gone. Otherwise, I would've let you known sooner."

Kolivan let go of Shiro and stepped back until he leaned against his desk. He observed the second in command for some seconds.

"You should get some sleep, Takashi. Rest."

"But…"

"This is a command."

"Bu-… Yes.. Sir." Shiro bowed and turned around to leave the room. Kolivan observed him closing the door shut, his figure glowing in the dimmed light.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Shiro returned to his own rooms, a sleeping room, bath and office. He was one of the Blades who was living in the headquarters since there was no other home he could return to. Indeed, the headquarter had always been his home since he had been found as a small child in front of Kolivan's door. And the leader of the _Blades of Marmora_ had taken him in as his son, giving him his name.

As Shiro grew older, he grew in status and gained the trust and loyality of the fellow _Blades_ who surrounded him every day. Soon, he was used to fights and seeing blood on a daily basis. The life of the Yakuza groups had been rough for a while and especially when Shiro was younger, he had seen things which other children at his age wouldn't have.

When he turned 20, Kolivan made him second in command and let him deal with complicated cases as well as the ever growing responsibility to protect their group and it's members. Still, Shiro had been young and there had been a lot to learn. If things got worse, his fellows had always been there to help him.

Once, an incidence had occured where Shiro was about to be attacked and Regris, another _Blade_ , had barged in to help. He ended up killing the attacker and was sent to jail for a couple of years after. The laws of the government were about to change by that time and that's why now, a couple of years later, the life of being a Yakuza had become difficult. The time where police and Yakuza helped each other out were over and the trust they once had in one another had vanished.

But Shiro still believed in the police, as they could do something which the Yakuza couldn't and vice versa.

Shiro had grown into a man with responsibility and made a proper job. But at times like these it was difficult. They had a deal with the _Madoushi_ group which hold contacts to America and Europe. The _Blades_ and the _Madoushi_ were about to send imitated products as kitchen knives and other blades to the other continents. Nothing entirely legal, that's for sure. But they needed to maintain some traffic since they had to live from something as well.

But just before the final information should be exchanged, there was an intel saying that the _Madoushi_ would deceive the _Blades_ and Shiro should be killed by an assassin. If this would take place, the other group would have gained profit of the whole deal. Since the Blades needed to ensure their own income, there was no other way as to stop the deal from it's realisation. Thus, Kolivan ordered to kill the messenger they had met at the harbour. Reasoning was different and showing a warning like this occured often within their circles. If the assassin would've been among those group members at the harbour, they would have tried to kill the successor and Thace and Antok – as well as any member of the _Blades_ – would have done everything in order to protect Shiro, no matter what.

The whole deal was at the borderline of the current judging system. If anything goes wrong they could go to prison. Normally, Kolivan would say _The trick is not to get caught doing it_ but this time Shiro felt devastated.

They had killed those men.

He slid out of his clothes, left them where the touched the ground as he went through his bedroom to his bath. He wanted to get rid of the scent of blood and desperateness as soon as possible.


	3. Crime Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police is heading to the crime scene where they find three dead men.

The car smelled like dog.

"Can we open a window?" Hunk asked. "Kosmo's scent is making me dizzy."

Keith smiled. "Go ahead, Hunk."

"Uhh… the windows are locked back here, Keith." Hunk sighed and leaned his head against the clear screen of the police car which was manoeuvred through the usual morning traffic of Kobe.

"Ah, right, I forgot." Keith, sitting on the co-driver's seat, pushed a button next to him so that fresh air filled the room. "Sorry about that. We usually take him in this car with us."

"Ahh, don't get me wrong, Keith. I love Kosmo." Hunk turned his head towards the big dark fured dog who was sitting in the cargo bay.

"Please don't take this personally, Kosmo, yeah?"

Hunk inhaled the fresh air, mixed with salt from the open sea. "The last night was… a bit too long I might say, so, uh, I get dizzy easily."

"Sounds like a rough night indeed. You dared to come to work nevertheless?"

"Uhm, yeah?" Hunk became nervous as he glanced towards his chief who had asked while keeping his eyes on the traffic. He was clearly smirking though.

"But I'm not drunk anymore, Sir, I swear."

"He is kidding, Hunk," Keith said. He threw his chief a glance but he was sure that Lotor didn't mean anything by it. At least nothing which would get them fired so easily.

"So, where are we actually heading to?" Hunk tried to change the topic.

"And you didn't listen to our orders, did you?" Lotor mentioned, voice calm but amused.

Hunk frowned and pouted. "Well..." He made a gesture with his hand but it seemed he didn't know how to get out of this so he just ended up in silence.

"We're heading to the harbour." Keith explained.

"Oh, wonderful!"

Keith and Lotor exchanged a quick look.

"Uh, Hunk, not **that** harbour which you were probably imagining."

Hunk frowned. "But which?"

"The container harbour in the eastern side of Kobe."

"Aww man, why?"

Keith chuckled. But then he got quiet once more. "They found three dead bodies," he added.

Hunk didn't say anything but Keith could see him in the driving mirror making a rather unamused look.

While they all went silent, Keith thought about the message of the three dead bodies which had been found by a worker at the harbour early in the morning. First, Keith had thought that someone had died in the last night's typhoon. But then there were gun shot holes in their bodies mentioned and his prior theory was gone in an instant.

Murder.

Three men had been murdered in the past night. They had vanished from this world.

Keith bit his lip and watched the outside world passing by behind the police car's windows.

They drove steadily through the traffic until they reached a calmer area with less traffic and moreover less people. At least less living people as Keith noticed a graveyard.

After reaching the entrance to the harbour, the gate was opened by a fellow police officer and Lotor drove the car to a wide area where he parked it. They got out and Keith went to the cargo bay to get Kosmo. He put a chain on his neck, which he had gotten used since he became a police dog. He had really hated it in the beginning which had made Keith's decision of using him as a police dog questionable. In the end, both of them had settled to their current situation.

Lotor locked the car and put on the usual black police head with several badges on it marking him as the chief.

"This way, Sir." A young police officer, which had arrived ahead of them, showed them the way and lead the way towards the water side.

The air was fresh this morning, yet still a bit cool. Luckily, it had stopped raining and the sky was actually a bit blue. Although the temperature and humidity might increase during the day. The eerie screams of seagulls were everywhere, echoing between the large container, and the closer the group came to the crime scene, the louder became the splashing of water. There were some ships to be seen in the distance, most of them driving close to the scenic harbour close to the city's core.

Keith tried to imagine how this place must have looked like in the middle of the night, let alone during typhoon season. He was totally creeped out by this place already given the state that some people had been here just some hours before to kill a bunch of people.

But he must admit that the straight view onto the scenic harbour close to the city center of Kobe was beautiful. The red _Port Tower_ was clearly visible and Keith smiled as he saw the familiar landmark.

They walked past some containers which came in all kinds of colours and with different descriptions on it, but all of them were gigantic and cold.

Finally, they arrived at the crime scene.

The three men were already put in the usual aluminium boxes, the place where they had been found was marked with white chalk. There were small signs with different numbers all over the ground to point out connected items or other things, though there were only a few. The culprit must have covered their traces after all. Moreover, there were puddles of water everywhere, which had made it hard to find many more at all.

There were some more police officers, discussing things and walking around to look for some more evidence. Next to the provisional coffins was a team of the forensic lab who studied some things they must have found on or inside of the dead bodies.

Lotor walked further towards the three aluminium coffins. Keith followed him, keeping Kosmo close by. The giant dog knew the scent of death but it was always a good idea to keep him close in such suituations since he got too excited at times.

As soon as Lotor got close enough, he asked the lab team to reveal one of the faces and they agreed. The chief kneeled down next to the coffin, Keith right by his side, to make a rough inspection. Sometimes it appeared that the dead were some known criminals which made it easy to distinguish the cause of death as well as to reveal the culprit.

Keith was interested as well. A side glance showed him that Hunk was rather interested in the white markings and numbers spread over the place.

A woman of the lab team came and grabbed the cloth with a gloved hand to pull it away.

The face of the man was white and swollen, maybe because he had been laying in water the whole night. Keith had never seen this man. His eyes examined the small hole a gun – maybe 7 or 8 mm – had left behind. He must have been dead on the spot.

"Do you know him, chief?" Keith asked, not expecting a positive answer. He searched for a pair of latex gloves in his pockets he used to search through evidences.

Silence.

"Chief?"

Keith looked at his boss and was surprised to see a rather astonished look in his eyes. He didn't seem to have heard his subordinate.

"Uhm, Chief?"

Still, no response.

"Chief, Sir, have you seen this man before?" Keith tried again and touched Lotor's shoulder slightly. Lotor blinked surprised and threw a glance towards Keith from the corner of his eyes. He quickly gathered his feelings until he was the well self-conscious man as he used to be.

"Sorry, Kogane, I don't know this man. Oh, thanks-" He took the gloves Keith was still holding in his hands. He put them on and started to open the foil a bit more to search through the pockets of the dead man's coat and shirt.

Keith watched him doing this but it appeared that the corpse didn't have anything with him which could give a clue to the cause of his death.

Lotor cursed silently. He got rid of the gloves and went to one of the doctors to ask for information about the circumstances of death and time.

Keith watched the face of the man, before the woman closed the cloth over him again. He was so pale. A lot of blood must have left his body already, washed away by the night's rain. The bullet-hole in his temple was nearly invisible but there was nevertheless some skin and brain texture missing.

Keith frowned. The man must've been dead on the spot. That's why he assumed that the murderer had known what he had been doing. They must have had the knowledge of killing someone properly and with a low amount of pain.

Who was this dead man that he had to be killed by a professional?

"4:30."

Keith looked up to see his chief standing on the other side of the dead man.

"Sir?"

"PM."

That didn't help either.

"4:30? PM?" He asked carefully.

"That's the time they died. Roughly estimated." Lotor curled his lips. "Nobody saw anything, nothing found either, the worker weren't here by that time since their shift started later in the night. Well, morning, I guess."

"Any other hints we found?" Keith glanced towards the lab team and the white marks still on the ground.

"A bullet close to the water side," Hunk mentioned. He came over and made a weary face as he looked quickly at the dead bodies.

"Only one?" Lotor asked.

"Yes, Sir. They are looking for more. But… They were found relatively close to the edge. Maybe those bullets are somewhere in the water."

"One is enough I guess." Keith shrugged.

"Yes," Lotor agreed. "There are no fingerprints found and the culprit didn't leave anything behind. Though." He showed something he was holding in his hand. It was a plastic bag with a card in it.

"An ID card?" Keith assumed.

"Correct. We will have him analysed by our computer system later. Maybe he's already in there somewhere."

"Can we finally go back? They make me nervous." Hunk glanced towards the aluminium boxes which were still open. Albeit being covered with cloth, their noses and bloody temples sticked out.

"Then don't look at them," Lotor said indifferent. "I will ask some more about the corpses. Please check for other evidences and tell me immediatly if you find something."

"Alright."

"Got that."


	4. Office Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation starts, revealing a couple of people involved with the yakuza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also wanted to give some backstory for Keith (and Shiro respectively in the next chapter).

After noon, they were finally back in the office.

Hunk grinned widely as he made his way towards the kitchen to get his prepared lunch. Keith on the other hand sat down at his desk, still thinking about the circumstances which had happened at the harbour. Kosmo yawned widely. He lumbered around before laying down on the big basket arranged underneath the desk.

Keith had the ID card in his hands and read the inscription. The man's name was Wakaya Akira, 183cm, the written address showed him that he had been living in the western side of Kobe. His picture was much less pale than his dead one and the hair had been longer when the ID card was issued.

He had never seen this man before. Thus, he switched his computer on and opened the programme they internally used as a database, where everybody was registered, who had been in contact with the police. Many different things were saved as data from the ID cards, listed crimes, time in prison or penalties.

Since the system worked according to the card's number, it didn't take long to find Wakaya Akira.

He was notified twice. Once for criminal assault, the other time for burglary. He had to pay a fee both times, the first higher than the second. The assault case was suspected to be connected to the yakuza. Apparently, there had been a fight several years ago about borrowing money from smaller shops which hadn't been returnd to the yakuza group and thus the members had demanded it by force.

"Any news?" Hunk asked, munching on a sandwich. "Want one?" He handed Keith another.

"Ah, thanks, Hunk." Keith took it and ate a bite. He felt actually quite hungry, now, where he was eating. "And yes, I found him. Look at this."

Hunk came around and read the information Keith had opened.

"So, he's with the yakuza, hm? Could be a tough case." Hunk swallowed hardly but made a weary look as if something came to his mind just now. "Aww, man, I hope it's not the yakuza."

"Why?" Keith frowned.

"Because whenever it's something with the yakuza, something bad will happen, for sure." Hunk sighed. He looked down on his sandwich, sad and a bit irritated.

"Maybe it already happened." Keith thought about the three dead men which had been found in the early morning.

"What did he do before? Criminal assault?" Hunk leaned towards the screen. Keith, who feared about sauce and pickles drenching his documents, stopped his friend from moving further.

"Yes," he said. "He was apparently part of the fight but there was no direct connection to the group, so it's not hundred percent sure."

"Which group was it?" A deep and clear voice asked. Lotor came back from his own office into the bigger room.

"Uhm… The _Madoushi_ group." Keith read from the computer screen.

"What if he ranked higher in the years inbetween this incident and his death?"

"Might be possible."

"So they might've been yakuzas, alltogether?" Hunk raised his eyebrows.

"They are not that uncommon, Hunk. Actually, Kobe has many yakuza groups. You were born here, you should know about the criminal record of your home town. As a police officer the more." Keith snickered.

Hunk pouted and thus, Keith boxed his friends into the side, making him a bit more relaxed.

"I put you in charge of the case, Kogane." Lotor announced as he stood in front of his desk.

"Sir?"

"I'm still your superior, but I put you in command as well. Hunk, you're working on this case as well."

Hunk made a wimpering sounds before answering. "Yes, Sir."

"Get the necessary information. I want to know why those men were killed and by whom."

"Yes, Sir," both of them spoke in unison.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Keith was originally from Osaka. At least for the biggest part of his life. His mother and him where living there after coming from abroad where his father had died when he had been still young. But Japan was the home country of his mother's side and that's why they had decided to move there. Keith had had many troubles while trying to adjust to his life in this country. But he had found a few friends he held dear, apart from his mother and his giant never-stopping-to-grow dog Kosmo.

After graduating high school he had decided to attend the police academy and thus became a police officer. Soon after graduation, he had been called to be stationed in Kobe, close to Osaka.

Since he couldn't let go of his dog and saw the potential in him, he trained Kosmo to be a police dog. It went quite well, although Kosmo was more of a free and wild dog than a certain breed to be trained to listen to others. Luckily, it would be Keith he had to listen to and he seemed to be okay with this. A great relief for both of them.

A little bit of time had passed since he had started his career as a police officer, but Keith was still one of the youngest they had in Kobe which made many suspects and culprits underestimating him. And Keith was definitly nobody to underestimate to. Of course, he lacked a bit of experience but he always could rely on his colleague and friend Hunk, who was born in Kobe. They had met along their way working together in the same station and got along well.

Hunk had introduced Keith to his friends as well, as there were mainly a computer genius with wild brown hair and glasses, a lanky guy with strange flirting methods (according to Hunk they worked only once and nobody, including lanky guy himself, could believe this), and a tall woman whose hair looked like the light of moon.

At least, this was the description Keith had given them the first time they had met. And somehow, he had gotten used to them, albeit speaking to them with their names of course.

Keith really liked his job. He was mainly in charge for unusual cases since he had a good intuition when it came to analysing people and their behaviour. And Kosmo tagged along with him and a giant dog would always be good when chasing culprits.

Kobe was well known for being one of the cities where the yakuza had a broad appearance, although in the underground. A long time ago they were working together with the government's force. But as time passed by and the law changed, working together got more and more difficult until it became partly illegally. Therefore, there was barely anything the police could do if the yakuza were in any trouble. They could only accept the given law. And if some group members were killed by other group members, Keith had the job to find them and clarify it.

His first case as a freshmen police officer had been indeed something to do with the yakuza in Osaka. And after getting to know more about them and the whole situation they were in, he got kind of fascinated by them. He understood that those groups had their own system of judgement, their own structure of organisation, their own sense of responsibility to maintain the group's safety and to care for each other. It was similar to Keith's own reasons why he had chosen to become a police officer.

And this was the reason why Keith was kind of happy to have been assigned this case as he got another rare chance to find out more about the undergound world of the yakuza and their riddles.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


"What do we have?" Lotor asked. He grabbed a chair and sat down, leaning against the back of the chair as if it was a totally normal way to sit on one. Hunk was sitting behind his own desk right beside Keith's.

Three days had passed and Keith and Hunk had done a lot of research about the few information they had about the _Madoushi_ group and it's members. And a lot more.

Both of their desks looked as if a paper-bomb was exploded. There were many documents and pictures of people and locations. Some folders contained past cases and archived newspapers. A heavy looking file showed the very first cases where the police had to deal with yakuza.

"There are several groups in Kobe," Keith started. He sorted some papers and took a few pictures in his hand, before turning around to the cardboard behind him. He took some paper and scribbled names on them while attaching the according picture to the wall.

"There is the _Madoushi_ group, oh which the dead men were members of." He put a picture of the crime scene they had visited a couple of days ago. "Their names are Wakaya Akira, Shimeo Kano, and a third unknown man." He got a paper laying on his desk. "They are known for creating counterfeit money and distribute it throughout the Kansai region among many other things."

Keith took another picture showing a pale man with blonde hair.

"This is Takama Mi. He is the suspected leader of the _Shou_ -group. They are rather small but had influence on airports and controlling borders." Keith looked around. "Hunk, can you give me the last one?"

Hunk nodded and handed him two pictures and a name card. One picture showed a hooded figure with broad shoulders and a white belt, crossed above his chest.

"This is the leader of the _Blade of Marmora_ ," Keith said. He frowned. "We don't have any picture of his face, unfortunately. They seem to either cover themselves when going out or letting somebody else handle the manual work. Nevetherless, we have this here."

He put the second picture next to it. It showed a bearded man with a flattened chin, his eyes seemed to glow in the dark alley the picture was taken in. Behind him stood another man but neither his full body nor his face were recognisable. They could notice a buff body build and a fluff of white hair, visible behind the shoulder of the bearded man.

"This is the son of the leader of the _Blade of Marmora_. Again, no direct picture and this one was taken from a journalist. They are rather undercover, all of them."

"And what about the man with the beard? Do we know the name of him?" Lotor asked.

"Yes, Sir. His name is Thace Seong. He was originally from Korea but came to Japan during his childhood."

"I see." The chief seemed at least a bit satisfied and nodded. "What is their influence?"

"They do a lot of trading to keep their own economy stable," Hunk said this time. He had a note in his hand. "They do all kinds of trades. Their products aren't bad but don't provide the full quality either. I think they have many contacts with China and Taiwan."

"I see," Lotor said again. He nodded slowly before lifting a a folder he had brought along. "I have another one."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Keith asked curiously.

"A picture. I found it in my own files I had stored on my computer. It's a bit older though. I scanned it some time ago and printed it out." Lotor took it out of the folder and handed it over to Keith.

It showed a woman. She was young but her eyes showed a different age. She had white hair, tied together in her neck. Her chin was pointy and there were two scars running from her eyes down to her cheeks.

"This is Haggar," Lotor said. "She is the leader of the _Madoushi_ group."

"Huh, Sir!? Where did you get the picture?" Keith asked and Hunk looked as surprised as he felt.

"Well, unfortunately I can't quite remember it myself. Though, I'm lucky that I found it and that I actually scanned it." Lotor scratched the back of his head. "Since this picture is a bit older, she may not be the recent leader anymore. She might be dead as well. But..." He paused.

"But?" Hunk asked.

"Well… It is said that she possesses some kind of power in some kind of way." Lotor frowned.

"Like, uh, magic?" Hunk made an unbelievable look.

"What do you mean, Sir? Powers?" Keith wanted to know.

"I'm not entirely sure if I should believe this or not. But we can't rely on assumptions. We have to consider that she is still a part of the group and a powerful one as well. She brought the _Madoushi_ group to a point where they are one of the biggest in Kobe."

Keith wondered where his chief got all the information and the picture, but he was the chief and had experienced many things already. Of course he knew a lot more than Keith and Hunk did.

"Well," Lotor said. He looked down on the documents and files and newspapers. "Tell me what else you got and we'll see where to start."


	5. To Find one's Tribe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and the Blades have some training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The promised backstories; they are small but I'm kinda satisfied with them.

The old storage smelled like rusty air and had the definite scent of old oil and metal.

The ground was just pure soil, which seemed to cover parts of the walls as well. If there wouldn't be any plants, already residing at every corner and below the row of dusty windows, the storage would seem just like an abandoned house.

Luckily, the windows were mostly undamaged and brought enough light into the spacious hall. It's location was relatively close to the headquarters of the _Blade of Marmora_ , yet it still took ten minutes in Antok's black Mercedes to get them here.

The headquarters were no place to have a proper training. Thus, Shiro, Antok, Thace and Regris came here at least twice a week to work out. It was a rough training, not the typical work out provided at a fitness center. They used hard wooden sticks, shields, puppets to aim at, and knives.

Since their group had a soundproof room within their headquarters where they could train using their guns, it wasn't necessary to do this here. Also, the nearby pedestrians and neighbours would be definitly aware if they started shooting in a large storage. There were no direct houses next to them, but the echo would be carried far.

Shiro and Thace were standing in the middle of the large room. Neither of them wore any shirt nor undershirt, only soft cotton pants light enough to run and jump as they pleased. Moreover, their usual clothes were made of the same withstanding material which made this training more realistic.

Shiro had a wooden stick in his hands, Thace a broad shield made of strong fibred plastic. They were breathing hardly as they had been training for a while already. Antok and Regris, members of the _Blades_ , stood beside and watched.

There were many smaller and a few bigger scars all of them carried on their bodies. Thace's left leg had been damaged ever since he was a child. Thus, a long scar reached from his ankle along his leg and over his knee to end up somewhere close to his groin. Many smaller scars criss-crossed from the big one, distributing like a red coloured cobweb.

Originally, Thace came from South Korea. When he had been young, his parents had had debts and the debtcollectors – a mafia group from Seoul's underground – had taken him as a deposit. He had been treated badly by them and he barely remembered the things they had done to him. His damaged leg was one thing of a past he wanted to forget. After the debtcollectors finally killed his parents, Thace somehow fled, found his way to the harbour and came as a stowaway to Fukuoka. There, he had met Antok and together they had come to Kobe. He never talked much about his past, but as he got into the world of the _Blades_ , he accepted himself and noticed that there are different kinds of yakuza groups with different purposes. With accepting himself and being part of the _Blades_ , he earned his tatoo. It was a symbol that he belonged to this world which would never let him go again.

His tatoo showed a black eagle, speading it's wings over his shoulder, arm and a bit over the back as well.

Antok's face seemed indifferent. He watched how Shiro tried to attack Thace once more, made a lunge and got to touch the shield for a brief second, before Thace pulled away and let his stick touch the ground.

Antok used to be the trainer of them. He was born in Fukuoka, but he had never met his parents since he grew up in an orphanage. After graduating, he spent a lot of time researching his parents and found out that they had been part of a gang warfare. His father had been in charge of a bigger deal. But he had fallen in love with the wife of the gang leader. Antok was the result of this love. His father had been killed and his mother as well, due to her betrayal to her leader. First, Antok started to study martial arts to revenge the deaths of his parents. But the group fell apart as time passed by and now, most of them were in jail.

When he had met Thace, they had both decided to tag along due to their similar pasts and left Fukuoka to join the _Blades_.

Antok's tatoo was given to him one year after Thace had gotten his. It was a leopard looped around his left hip, the tail covering his thigh and the head his lower back. There were dots everywhere covering the darkened skin.

Regris sat on a chair which's backrest was broken. His eyes were fixated on the movements Shiro's and Thace's feet were doing. Sometimes he would nod approvingly but if there was something off, he grunted. Regris was one of the few who came from a relatively normal family. His parents were teacher on Hokkaido and he himself used to work in Tokyo as a salaryman for a big car company, before he got in touch with the _B_ _lades_ and deemed their living style as his new one.

His tatoo showed a buzzard flying over his right arm and his side.

Shiro grunted and lowered his stick to observe Thace's defense. The left side was low, he would try to go for it but just before he could reach it, he would change to the other side.

He smirked and went for his plan, but Thace knew what he was trying to do and blocked both of his hits.

"Your foot revealed your tactic, Sir," Regris murmured.

Shiro looked down and thought about it. He nodded towards his fellow Blade and thought about a new way to attack.

Shiro had never known his parents, nor was he able to find any information about them during his life. When he still had been a baby, he was put in front of the door of the _Blades_ headquarters. The _Blades_ had taken him in and Kolivan had raised him as his son. With coming of age, he had made him the second in command which meant to become his heir. Kolivan was kind of a father to him, but Shiro grew up among all of the _Blades_ which made the headquarter his home and everybody else in there his family.

It had always bothered him that he had never known where he originally came from. Who were his parents? Were they yakuza as well? Had they known that they were putting Shiro in front of a yakuza door? Maybe, it had been somebody else entirely?

Shiro had developed many conspiracies about his origin and why he had white hair and not black, as most of the Japanese people had.

Had his parents been in debt as well? Were they killed and a friend of the family had taken charge and put him in front of a familar group which wouldn't kill an infant right away? Had their parents paid with their lifes because of him? There had always been so many and so many new questions whenever he had thought about it.

Kolivan hadn't known anything at all though he had always been well reserved. Although he shared the same hair colour with Shiro, there was no connection whatsoever.

After many years, Shiro had accepted that he was part of the _Blades_ now. He felt at home at the headquarters, the members were his family and if anyone was about to be in danger, he would protect them, no matter what.

Thus, Shiro had gotten his tatoo, which was covering his back: A lion.


	6. A Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Blades get a letter from the Madoushi.

Once Shiro and the others had returned from their training in the outside storage house to the headquarters, they were ordered to Kolivan's room.

"Close the door." Kolivan's dark voice came from somewhere behind the desk.

He sat on his usual chair, back directed towards them. The lights were low, a small lamp hung above the leader's desk and shone on his ears and white braided hair.

Antok did as commanded and waited patiently next to the door. Regris and Thace stood on the other side and Shiro was right in front of the desk.

"Sir?" Shiro asked, his voice calm and neutrally.

There was a long pause before Kolivan finally turned around, revealing himself and a letter he had been reading as he still had it in his hands.

"We got this today in the mail, no stamp." Kolivan handed Shiro the piece of paper.

The second in command frowned while going through the pointy written characters. He thought about the content and gave the letter to Thace since he was standing just behind him.

"Huh!?" Thace made after he read the text. "They aren't serious, are they?"

"I think they are," Regris said with his calm voice. He had read the letter above Thace's shoulder.

"It's from the _Madoushi_ group," Antok added as he was handed the message. "So they want it to be like that."

Kolivan put the tips of his fingers together and sighed.

"I'm not so sure about that. They say that we killed their members during the transaction and thus they want to pull back from the deal they had arranged."

"So this means they want to grass us up? Try and go to the police to say that we killed them on purpose to make more money out of the deal?" Antok suggested.

"Or they want to cut ties with us," Thace said.

"Or they wanted to get rid of some of their members," Regris mentioned.

"No," Shiro said quietly. "We got the intel that they would try to trick us beforehand. Why would they send a letter, accusing us of killing their members intentionally? That doesn't make any sense at all. They wanted to trick us and now they contact us directly?"

Kolivan nodded slowly. "You're right, Shiro. We thought that they wanted to get out of this deal anyway, why bother and send us a letter where everything went accordingly."

"Except three dead men." Shiro deadpanned.

Kolivan tilted his head. "I think we've been fooled."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Regris asked.

"We got the information that they would trick us and do the deal themselves. We tried to irritate them by killing the people who were sent to murder Shiro. We have three dead men because of the intel we got. Now, we have a letter from the dead men's group that we killed them on purpose to get out of the deal. Why?"

Kolivan got up and walked through the room.

"Who was the informant we got the intel from? The intel that they wanted to kill our second in command."

"I think it was Shiya-san," Thace thought aloud. "He was observing some _Madoushi_ group members, listened to them and found out about it."

"Where they really _Madoushi_ members?" Kolivan frowned.

"He was sure of it since they knew information only the members could know. But he didn't recognise their faces."

"On the other hand," Regris said now, "There are many members in the _Madoushi_ group. It's difficult to remember all of them."

"They might have tricked us at an early point already." Shiro took the letter from Antok. "It might've been a trap so that we would kill them."

"This could cause a warfare betweeen two big yakuza groups in Kobe, I hope they knew what they were doing." Kolivan grunted.

"But why?" Thace wanted to know. "What is the purpose of this trap? To illiminate us?"

Kolivan was still angry, though his face barely showed anything. He squinted his eyes once to regain his senses once more.

"We need to think," he stated. "Follow the path of Shiya, ask him where he saw the members and let him describe them. Maybe you notice them. We need to know who it was and what purpose they intended of giving us false intel."

Shiro lowered his head and bit his lip. _We killed someone and what for?_ He thought. _We thought they would drop us, let us caught in the act and get the police after us. We killed three men_ _to safe our own group_ _._

Suddenly, a firm hand was on Shiro's shoulder. Kolivan had a grim look as he watched him.

"We need to get in contact with the police somehow. Convince them that it wasn't murder."

"If we go to the police now, they will arrest us right away," Shiro replied.

"True, we can't do that, Sir," Regris said. "They will come after us sooner than we think."

Kolivan grunted once more but agreed.

"Alright," he mumbled. "Go to Shiya and ask him. I want to know what's going on!"


	7. Chasing the Blades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Hunk observe a possible Blade-hide-out which leads into a chase, ending at...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first longer chapter. I kind of put a lot of investigation in the beginning, hm... not sure if that's so interesting but well, it's a cop/yakuza story. And, the deeper the case, the more Sheith will appear ;)  
> My favourite part of this chapter is Keith losing it.

"How long are we gonna wait here?"

"As long as needed," Keith returned, his voice low and nearly a grunt.

"And for what?" Hunk rolled up the sleeve of his uniform to take a look at the time from his watch.

"Until someone is showing up of course."

Hunk sighed. "That could last more than a day, what if they are sleeping?"

"At five in the afternoon?" Keith raised an eyebrow and looked at his friend. "I don't think so." He turned around and continued to watch the two passage ways connected to a big street close to _Sannomiya_ station.

There had been some reports that the _Blade of Marmora_ members were seen close to the districts around the station. Thus, Keith and Hunk, as well as two other officers, had made it their new job to find some time of the day to observe those locations. It was a nasty job but Keith had a good feeling.

And those passage ways looked promising. If he would be a yakuza, he would choose something like these streets for his hideout. They weren't too run-down and were sustained well enough which is why people were living here, owning smaller shops and cafes. There were more people around this time as they returned from their job or made their way to the station to get a train.

Hunk laid back, his eyelids were halfy closed but he was still watching the right street as Keith had told him to. They were sitting in a civilian car they mainly used for purposes like those and had parked in a garage nearby with a low roof.

Keith hoped that this would be enough to not seem suspicious. They even wore normal coats over their uniforms.

The _Blade of Marmora_ was one of the groups with the biggest influence in Kobe. Thus, they were well known by the police as they were involved in many things. Although some stuff was at the border to illegality, most of the things they did were still within the frame of the current law, allowing them to sustain their group and lead a life in a modern city.

It seemed a bit weird but the _Blades_ – Keith called them like that since it was way shorter – had somehow managed that their members were barely registered in the database. Thus, most of them were not known by the police, only a few faces and even fewer names. Keith knew that they had worked together with the police a long time before Keith had been born, but this was all in the past.

He wondered about this. How would it be to work together with someone, who wasn't binded to their law as Keith was?

"Keeeiii-th, I'm bored. I don't think that anyone will come out soon."

"The more reason to wait longer. You need to train your patience a little, Hunk."

"I just want to go back home and sleep, don't blame me." Hunk crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

"Oh, come on, Hunk, you're shift just started."

"Oh, lucky me," Hunk mumbled with a sense of pure sarcasm. "It's nearly six. If we don't find anyone soon, I want to have some take out, you hear me?"

"And I'll pay?"

"If you insist." Hunk shrugged.

Keith chuckled. "Alright, alright. This time it'll be on me."

Keith squinted his eyes and concentrated once more on their observation. It was hard to stare at the same passage way for over an hour without anything happening. There was only the constant coming and going of undefined office worker to and from the station and a random dog, sniffing probably himself.

He loosened and tightened his grip on the steering wheel and sighed. He really felt confident with this corner but nothing had happened so far. Maybe Hunk – who started to mumble about his favourite dishes and how to make them the best way – was right, they should go back and look for another way how to observe the _Blade_ _s_ properly.

Suddenly, a black car was driving carefully out of a nearby garage. No, not really a garage, it rather looked like an underground parking area. Keith hadn't known that one of them had been build here. The maps they had studied in advance were old and not really useful. Many houses had been demolished already, there were many new ones, and most of the existing ones had been probably renovated.

It was a Mercedes with tinted windows. The driver seemed to be a huge man with broad shoulders.

The car was already on the connected street before Keith could react. He started the engine and followed the car.

"Woah, Keith! What is going on!?"

"The car, didn't you see it?" Keith barely found the belt. "Here, put mine in as well, I will follow them."

They were on the main street now. Keith looked right and left but the traffic in front of the station was always busy. He had to find it. It was definitly a car of the _Blades_. It had to be.

 _And I don't even have the car number_ , he just thought as he saw the car again. He pressed down the gas just as Hunk had managed to handle their belts. He was thrown back in his seat as Keith took on the chase.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


They were driving towards the northeast part of Kobe. Keith tried to have a certain distance between their cars but he feared to loose them.

"What if they just go to a supermarket?" Hunk dared to ask.

Keith didn't answer but kept presssing the gas whenever the thought he could loose sight of the black Mercedes. Whoever it was in there, Keith knew he had to meet them.

The touch of the steering wheel got sweaty as Keith became more and more nervous loosing sight of what they had waited so long for. He couldn't loose them now, they were so close to finally get a clue. At least to get a proper picture of their faces.

Hunk kept mumbling something to himself while clasping tightly to his seat.

"What if they will kill us? What do we do?" He said while Keith kept driving at a high pace, pressing the gas constantly. He was still sure to be careful enough to not crash into anything valuable.

"Oh god, can you please slow down a little? Keith, come on, we gonna die at this rate and.."

"Hunk, can you be quiet?" Keith's rough voice made Hunk flinch a little.

"No! What do we do if they notice us?"

Keith sighed deeply and lost it. "Hunk, for God's sake, you're a police officer! How can you call yourself one if you can't even manage a mere observation!?"

Hunk went silent. For ten seconds. "But… they killed someone."

"We don't know that for sure." Keith calmed down again and focused once more on their aim.

"Well, I'm not gonna proof it." Hunk shrugged.

Keith wanted to say something more but bit his lip and sighed instead. "Can you call the chief what we're doing?"

"Huh? Oh yeah." Hunk took the radiophony from underneath his seat and called their chief. In short sentences he explained what had happened and Keith barely heard him answering, he was too focused on driving.

They left the very core of the city and found themselves in a suburb area, full of normal houses with gardens, swings and sandboxes. They drove further until the houses became more run-down, broken and unlivable.

As they kept driving, Hunk desribed the surroundings, the streets and places he saw so that their chief would know where the helll they were going.

"Around here," Keith mumbled and indeed this seemed to be the end of it.

The Mercedes stopped in front of a collection of small houses, all of them broken and in no use anymore. Keith parked in a secure distance and took out the binoculars from between the seats.

There were four men getting out of the car. The driver was indeed huge. He wore a black suite and had dark hair. The second one had a beard, the third was rather lanky and seemed to be nervous. He kept looking forth and back between the broken houses and the fourth man standing next to him.

He had a broad and muscular body, making the shirt and suit he was wearing stretch over his chest. His hands were covered by back gloves, his hair had an unusual white colour and there was a small amount above his temple fluttering in the wind.

Keith nearly chuckled about it.

He seemed to be the leader of their small group since he said some words which were obvious orders. And it looked like they all wore weapons underneath their clothes. It wasn't obvious for the normal eye but Keith had seen many things so far and those people were – apart from seeming obviously suspicious – trained in hiding stuff.

Keith took out the small camera he always had with him and took a picture of the group standing and dicsussing in front of the lost houses.

The slim man, who still seemed nervous, pointed to a nearby storage and the group walked towards it.

Keith really wanted to know what they were doing out here. It looked as if they were checking out the surroundings. If possible he would just go out to further observe them. It wasn't wise to do so now since there were barely any hideouts they could use. And Keith hadn't thought of any logical explanation why he should be here in an area with abandoned buildings, a nervous friend tagging along. He could tell that they were police officers but.. this would be contrary to their investigation. He must wait what would happen next.

Since it seemed that the four men knew each other, Keith strongly assumed that they were all _Blade_ members. They also came together with the same car – which was an important point since yakuza tend to keep up their status by taking their own car – and another point was that the fourth men (maybe an informant) wasn't treated as a captive. Albeit being obviouisly nervous.

The four yakuza walked around the house and looked through the broken glasses of the storage. It seemed empty. Keith watched them with his binocular and observed them going inside the storage.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Let's go."

"Huh? Wh-what!?"

Keith threw his friend a glance while putting down the binocular. "I'll go alone," he said and was out of the car before Hunk could say anything anymore.

He walked in a cowered position towards the bulding, still observing the car and the building. Nobody came out again. Since nothing happened, he continued until he reached the storage the group had disappeared into.

Keith tried to have a look inside, but the windows were broken in the lower half and moreover dirty. That was probably the reason why the four men had went inside. Keith sighed. He looked around and walked further until he reached a couple of windows which were still broken but at least cleaner.

And now, he could hear them.

"It was around here, Wakagashira. They were talking about the deal and how they would kill you, Sir, if they don't get a higher profit out of it."

Keith tiptoed and glanced through a piece of clean glass.

"Here, there had been a table and chairs." It was the informant speaking. Maybe he had done an observation beforehand in the same building. And now they had called the second in command, the Wakagashira, to have a look as well? Keith was impressed.

"I see. But there is nothing here now, right? Shiya, can you remember more?" It was the bearded man. He squinted his eyes and looked through the entire room. It wasn't a big room and apart from broken cupboards and a couch, there was nothing else.

"They could have removed it," the biggest man said. He was the driver of the Mercedes.

"I don't see any reason in doing this, Antok." The white haired man spoke and as he did a cold shower ran over Keith's back. The voice was dark and smooth yet full of intellect. It was a nice voice and it made Keith wanting to hear more of it.

"Shiya, where was the table?"

The man, Shiya, went to the middle of the room and pointed to the ground. "Here, Sir."

The white haired man walked there, kneeled down and examined the ground. "Thace," he said and the bearded man came as well, mimicking his position. "Do you see it too?"

"Yes, Sir. There are traces in the dust. Something stood here for sure."

"Hmm." It was a deep hum which made Keith's stomach jump. He tried to calm himself down again and concentrated on their words.

The second in command got up, frowning. "I don't see any reason why they should've removed the table and chairs. But it seems like it."

"We should look aorund a bit, maybe we'll see something. There must be traces at least, just like those on the ground." The driver spoke.

The white haired man agreed and they were just about to decide to which building they would go first, as a hand was put on Keith's shoulder.

Keith flinched and turned around, a repressed grunt in his neck.

It was Hunk.

Keith snarled and lowered his body – just as Hunk was doing – so that they were not seen by any of the yakuza inside of the building. He raised an eyebrow.

 _What?_ , he formed with his lips.

Hunk seemed nervous and he wimpered something which Keith couldn't identify as words. But he saw that his friend clutched tightly to the radiophony. Hunk pointed on it and formed words with his lips which Keith didn't understand.

"Let's take this one first and move further from here on." The bearded man spoke. Keith raised himself again and looked through the window. The goup moved onwards to a small dark alley which probably connected the storage with the neighbouring house.

When the men couldn't heat them, Hunk started to whisper.

"It's the chief, he calls us back."

Keith was more than surprised to hear this. "Why?"

"He says it's too dangerous with four yakuza. We're only two."

Keith shook his head since he didn't understand. "It's not dangerous," he whispered. He wanted to say more but he didn't know which words to use. He really did not understand why this investigation could be dangerous. They just observed four men and in case of troubles, Keith and Hunk still had their weapons themselves. In fact nobody was entirely unarmed.

But maybe this was the point their chief had decided to call them back? Because they killed already three men just like a normal daylife event?

The group disappeared and Keith sighed.

"Hunk? Are you still there?" Lotor's voice came out of the radiophony. "Where is Keith, is he with you?"

"Keith is here, Sir. I just told him not to go," Hunk answered quietly.

"Keith." This time Lotor adressed him. "Please come back. It's too dangerous to stay there."

"But, Sir, we.."

"Now, Keith." The background noise of the radiophony ended abruptly since Lotor stopped the transmittance.

Keith was angry about this decision but he couldn't just do as he pleased. He huffed and grimaced, but in the end he sighed and nodded.

"Let's go back, Hunk."

Hunk was obviously relieved about it as they returned to their car, still careful enough to not be seen by anyone. But nobody said anything, nobody shouted or shot.

When Keith sat back in the driver's seat, he stared a while over to the buildings. But the _Blades_ were swallowed entirely by the dark looking buildings.


	8. Unexpected Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and his fellow Blades inspect the abandoned buildings.

The corridors were moldy and cold. Some of them still had wallpaper which were cracked and bleached, most of them uncoiling. Various stains in different colours and textures covered ground, walls, and even the ceiling.

Shiro tried to not to wrinkle his nose. The storage was aired – more or less due to the broken or missing windows – but the second and third house were in a worse condition. Not even a rat would want to live here.

Antok was walking in front, Shiya and Thace were behind Shiro, guarding him from all sides as much as possible. It was their duty to protect their second in command, even with their lifes.

Shiya had explained what he had seen during their car ride to the abandoned houses. But there was othing to see, except the proof that something had been brought and removed again from the storage house.

And maybe Shiro had imagined it, but he thought to have heard a weird noise coming from the outside. But as soon as he had an opportunity – a rare clean window – to look outside, there was nothing which could've produced the sound.

"I don't think we'll find anything in these buildings," Thace said with a low voice. "Even if there was something, they would have removed it anyway."

Shiro nodded slowly. Yes, he thought so as well, but he still had the feeling that there was something inside of this kind of maze, seeking his attention.

"There is something," Antok said aloud. "There is..."

"Indeed, Blade, there is something."

A voice came from the next room they were about to enter. Shiro flinched and squinted his eyes to see better in the darkness; but no windows had been built in here.

They entered slowly, trying to figure out who there was before they could get into possible danger.

There were six men waiting on the other side of the room. Six huge shadows, tall and slim, waiting for them.

"You're from the _Madoushi_ group," Shiro stated.

"I can't deny that. We were just wondering what you were seeking in our territory." The man in the middle spoke. He was of average height but buff and maybe only made of muscles. "We were told that there were some _Blades_ running around on our grounds and we wanted to catch them."

"Well, here we are." Shiro frowned.

Only Kolivan knew that they were here. How could the _Madoushi_ group get the information that there were _Blade_ _o_ _f Marmora_ members searching for traces in those abandoned houses? How could they possibly know their location?

This was a matter for later, Shiro decided.

He stepped forwards until he stood next to Antok. "May I ask what you want from us?"

The _Madoushi_ group wasn't their enemy. But the group dynamic seemed to have changed and now something had happened which Shiro had feared for: They had lost trust in each other. He couldn't say whether the _Madoushi_ just wanted to have their grounds safe or if they wanted to take revenge for the death of those three men which Shiro had ordered.

In any case, they needed to settle this as soon as possible before this would be out of their control. Before going for the main reason why they all were here, Shiro wanted to start with a rather easy question.

Or so he thought.

"How did you know that we came here?"

"A very good question, Shirogane Takashi." The buff man stepped forwards and now they could see his face. He had a very thin beard – maybe due to laziness – and a scar running from his cheek to somewhere on his scalp. His voice was full of sarcasm. "Indeed a very good question coming from the son of your leader. Well… _son_."

The other _Madoushi_ members were laughing.

Shiro didn't say anything to that. In fact, it didn't hurt him at all. He knew who he was and he didn't feel any less pride in his acceptance and adoption by the _Blades_. It rather wondered him why the men were making fun of him since they had at least respected at each before the intel and the following incident at the harbour.

"Coming to your question." He made an artificial pause while changing his balance too the other foot. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you this. Simply, because I don't know. We have our own group order as you're aware of."

"I am." Shiro knew about their structure. But not as much since every group was hiding their own pretty well. It was rather a symbol of how close they were. Or rather, had been.

"Anyway, we wanted to verify whether it's true that you planned to kill me or not. That's why we came to this storage. Luckily, you're here as well so you may answer my question."

Shiro felt the surprised gaze on Shiya's and Thace's faces behind him. Antok's was as unmoved as most of the time.

Of course this was a bold question and he didn't expect the buff man to answer, but Shiro wanted to _know_ the answer. Were they really about to be cut off by the _Madoushi_? Did they plan on killing him?

"You've got some guts saying this, Shirogane." The buff men frowned.

Shiro couldn't say whether he was a really good actor or if this man really didn't know anything related to this case. But he seemed seemingly uninformed.

"Our group valued your life," the buff man added.

"So why? We've got the intel that I was about to be killed by your members, this is why we cut off the deal by..."

"By killing the ones you suspected to be your murderer?" The _Madoushi_ huffed. "Well, that's a normal solution among yakuza, I guess, but why not _ask_?"

"Why should I ask if you were given a chance to kill me more easily?"

Shiro stared at the _Madoushi_ group members. He was angry about all of this. He wasn't sure anymore why this had happened. Did they want to kill him or not? Were they still trustworthy? Did something happen within the ranks of the _Madoushi_?

"So." This time it was Antok. "You didn't plan on killing our second in command?"

The buff man stared at the tall Blade for a long time, before he sighed.

"No," he said. "We didn't want to kill him."

"But they said it!" Shiya shouted.

"Who?"

"There were three men in here and I was listening to their talk and they said that they wanted to kill the Wakagashira so that the _Madoushi_ could get more out of the deal!" Shiya trembled, his hands were fists and his eyes sparkled.

The _Madoushi_ seemed surprised but uneasy as well. Some of them started to mumble and exchanged quiet words.

"Describe them," the buff man demanded.

Shiya faced Shiro, who nodded without looking at him directly. He was still fixating the leader of the small opposing group. Shiya did as he was told and explained about the evening Shiro knew in every detail already.

After he had finished, most of the _Madoushi_ shook their heads.

"We don't know those men. It's bold of you to assume that those were our members. We don't have any spies among us."

"Shiya, are you sure they were _Madoushi_?" Thace asked.

Shiya nodded. "Yes. They talked about things only the _Madoushi_ or us could know, about our groups, members, and about the deal. And one of them had a tatoo. It was a black panther."

The _Madoushi_ members whispered once more. It was well known to any yakuza group in Kobe that the all of the _Madoushi_ had the same tatoo. This evidence at least was clear.

"So you want to state that it had to be _Madoushi_? Do you accuse us for murder?" The buff man put his hands in his hips.

"Well, you called the police and send them after us." Thace said.

"Because you killed three men!"

"This is the way which comes along trying to kill our Wakagashira!" Shiya said, voice high and still trembling.

"I'm sorry that all of this happened, but..." Shiro tried to calm them down but this only made things worse.

"You're sorry? You're seriously sorry!? You really came here and expect us to be satisfied with a simple apology from the second in comand?" The buff man shouted.

"Well, we didn't intend meeting you here."

"You ain't serious, right?" The buff man's face changed and a thick vene popped up on his temple. His hands became fists, showing white knuckles and bones.

Shiro stayed calm. He bit his lower lip and focused on the angry man. "I don't see any good way how to fix this problem we have."

"Oh, but I _do_ see a soluton right here." The man got a knife from underneath his coat.

Shiro frowned and expected the worst. This took defintily the wrong course.

The _Madoushi_ grinned malicious and a murderous look appeared in his eyes. "Why don't we take back the lifes you killed? We knew those men, we would like to get some revenge at least."

He came closer, two, three and more of his group were following him already.

This was seriously bad. Shiro threw a quick glance to his comerades who were preparing themselves. They were trained to use their weapons a a very last resort, thus non of them had them in their hands. Antok moved in front of Shiro in order to protect him.

As the man were nearly there, there was nothing Shiro could've done to prevent this from happening. He got ready himself and one second later he found himself in a brawl.

The _Madoushi_ were more or less using their body force and only three of them had knives which the _Blades_ tried to block. Shiro knew that Antok would protect him no matter what but in this way he would be hurt badly. Thus, the second in command took the initiative and stepped aside, leaving the safe shadow Antok had provided so far.

A _Madoushi_ got dangerously close and tried to hit Shiro's shoulder, but the Blade blocked his punch and boxed him in the stomach which made him slump to the dirty ground.

A scream made Shiro flinch and as soon as he turned his head, two things happened at once. He saw Shiya kneeling on the ground, the buff man had his head between his thick arms, choking the young Blade. And a fist landed on Shiro's neck, making him wince and growl.

He kicked the _Madoushi_ who was responsible for this and hurried to Shiya. He set his fingers in a triangular positon on the shoulderblade of the buff man and pressed into the nerves. The _Madoushi_ lost his power instantaneously, his arm would be demobilised for a while.

Shiro wanted to drag Shiya to a safe place since he seemed to be breathing heavily. Moreover, there was blood dripping on the ground, seeping the dust.

The second in command was too slow as he was attacked from two _Madoushi_ at the same time. They kicked his back, sides and pulled his hair. Shiro grunted while he tried to defend himself and his wounded subordinate.

They were clearly outnumbered.

"Keep him down."

The buff man had spoken. Shiro's attacker did as he said and kept his arm in a locked position, which was truly painful. Shiro gritted his teeth and looked up to the man. He expected some words but instead he could only watch a furious arm racing forwards followed by a sharp pain running through his body. It felt like his face was split open.

Blood dripped down onto his lips, chin and suit.

Shiro opened his eyes. A red haze covered his sight, the heavy liquid was smeared over his eyes and temple, dripping down from his chin.

The man had cut open the bridge of his nose.

A heavy breathed scream filled the room and Shiro and the buff man turned the heads. It was Antok who threw two men at once on the ground and crushed a third. Shiro wanted him to stop him but he knew that the attack would last as long as they were still moving.

And then he saw one of the _Madoushi_ getting a knive from somewhere, getting closer to the Blade.

"Antok!" Shiro shouted.

Antok turned around, just in time, and got a grip of the man's wrist. An aweful sound followed as the bones were crushed by the mere force of the Blade. A second _Madoushi_ tried to attack Antok from behind, but the tall Blade saw him. He kicked him hard so that he flew through a part of the room, crashing into a shabby cupboard which collapsed above him.

And then there was silence.

The man covered in concrete and dust didn't move. Shiya wimpered and the man with the broken wrist winced full of pain, keeping his arm tight to his chest.

"Let him go," the buff man said, his voice daringly quiet.

Shiro's arms were released and the first thing the second in command did was to wipe away the blood before coming to his feet.

Some _Madoushi_ went to check up on the unmoving man.

"Let us help you, we didn't intend to..."

"Just go already!" The buff man threw a fist after him. "Leave!"

Shiro bit his lip. He watched the damage they had suffered. Some of them were bleeding, Antok seemed disturbed but calm at once, Shiya was a trembling mess, nearing the loss of consciousness, and Thace tried to see whether the man covered in dust was okay or not.

"Let's go." Antok came closer. He touched Shiro's arm, before going to Shiya to lift him on his shoulder.

Shiro observed the _Madou_ _sh_ _i_ members but there was nothing they could do without being chased out. There would be another time to settle things.

He turned around and followed Antok and Shiya. Thace was the last to leave, protecting the back of the Wakagashira.


	9. Injured

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and the Blades return to their headquarter.

They kept silent during the way back to the headquarters.

Only Shiya was groaning once in a while, unable to suppress the obvious pain he was in. The spots where he'd been hit turned violet and blue already, blood was soaking his coat and the car seat.

Shiro threw him a glance once in a while, worried about his condition, physically as well as mentally. He himself pressed a tissue on his nose which was still bleeding silently. Moreover, it still hurt, but Shiro had experienced worse things.

Antok was surprisingly calm as he drove the black Mercedes through the afternoon traffic as if nothing had happened. Thace had his arm around Shiya to calm him down, although the young Blade barely noticed it as he was drifting towards unconsciousness. Thace's face was stern but his eyes were burning with bewilderment.

They looked the same way Shiro was feeling.

Something along the way to make the deal between their two groups must have happened. The question was: Who was invoved and why?

While watching the passing cars on the streets as if he was in a daze, Shiro's thoughts wandered to any occasion they had had so far to think about possibilities. But there was nothing he could do now, nothing which would help right away to solve this misunderstanding – or whatever this all was – with the _Madoushi_.

They arrived at the headquarters, parked the car and made their way in. Thace helped Shiya while Antok guarded Shiro.

Their welcome in the hidden buildings felt as if someone had died. Shiya was brought to their own facilities to treat injured people. It was also a place to store possible corpses.

Antok and Thace seemed alright apart from bruises and slight cuts, but Shiro got a compression bandage for his nose.

Usually, they didn't go to the hospital. Only if necessary and the injuries needed to be treated. But even easy broken bones could be fixed here.

While they were taken care of, with Shiya unconscious and resting in a bed, Shiro sat down on a chair. He was told to not move or breath through his nose while their nurse was looking for Antok. The tall Blade only seemed to have indeed a few bruises.

The whole procedures took a while, before the nurse mumbled some words of worry before leaving the room and checking up on Shiya.

Neither Antok nor Shiro said anything. Both seemed to be thinking about the matter which had caused so many troubles already.

Shiro just thought about where to start explaining what had happened to the others, as Kolivan entered the room without further ado.

"Takashi," he said. His glowing eyes examined his son carefully, before he accepted that he didn't have in any bigger injuries.

"Antok."

"I'm okay, Sir. I'm sorry." Antok said while bowing.

"No need to be." Kolivan frowned. He waited a whole minute before continuing. "Please tell me what happened."

Shiro let Antok deal with the explanations and added a few things here and there. His nose was hurting and all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

"Apparently," Kolivan said and his deep overpowering voice brought Shiro back to his normal senses. "The _Madoushi_ called the police and accused us of murder."

"What!?" Shiro got up too abruptly. He got dizzy and had to take his seat again. "Why?" He asked while pressing the bandage on his nose. "When they say we killed the three men, alright, but they would need to give an explanation to the police as well why we met at the harbour."

"It's not about those men." Kolivan said calmly. "Sure, they most likely called the police after what had happened but without a clue that it might was a gun of ours." He frowned while taking a step towards Shiro. "They want to settle this with us, that's for sure. Otherwise they could have told the police directly that we killed them."

"So why do they mark us as murder?"

"The men who got injured at the storage you've been to today… he died."

Shiro and Antok exchanged glances.

"When did you get the message?" Shiro asked.

"About half an hour ago."

"That was shortly after we left. Is he really… dead?"

Kolivan shrugged his shoulder. "They said so and that they plan on telling the police about it. We will be questioned soon I guess."

Shiro was stunned for a moment. The fight had been rather harsh but he had never expected this brutal ending.

"Sir, I'm..."

"Nobody could have done something to prevent this." Kolivan interrupted him. "They attacked you due to their emotions and you couldn't change it right at this time. It was an accident as I can tell from your story. And Antok." He saw to the tall man next to him who responded with a calm look in his eyes. "There is nothing to worry about. You didn't murder him. He attacked you and you tried to protect yourself."

"Yes… Sir." Antok's voice was rough.

"We need to make sure that something like this won't happen again." Kolivan turned around once more and faced the second in command. "We will go to the police and tell them what happened."

"Sir?" Shiro frowned, unsure whether this was a good idea or not.

"Before things get worse, Takashi." Kolivan's voice got soft.

"Yes."

Shiro nodded. He felt somehow weird about this idea but maybe this was the best they could do for now.


	10. The Private Morgue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yet, another corpse appears and a previously made decision leads to a surprise.

It was cold.

Or rather fresh. Keith was glad that he had brought his uniform's coat even though it was really humid outside. Typhoon season wasn't over yet, thus most of the police officers were only wearing their usual summer shirts with sleeves cut to their elbows.

Keith looked around. The room was relatively empty. A medical table was placed in the middle, a small chair stored underneath, a cupboard offered various instruments. Grey walls, rough ground, everything was clean. He felt as if he visited the morgue at the hospital. And indeed there was a corpse laying on the metallic table. It was a man, covered with a white cloth, unmoving and obviously dead.

It wasn't that Keith had never seen dead bodies, he was a police officer to begin with. It was rather the fact that seeing this body in an enviorment where he wouldn't expect a dead man to begin with was kind of weird. This room was no part of a hospital or undertaker's house, neither was it part of a graveyard or something, well, legally.

After Keith had arrived at the office for his morning shift, Lotor had come to tell him about a murder which had happened the day before. Keith's thoughts went directly to the harbour side but this time it wasn't like this. Apparently, a man from the _Madoushi_ group had messaged the police, telling them they had a corpse in one of their owned locations.

Keith had been more than surprised and he still was. The location they were informed about hadn't been far away but weren't close either. After arriving with their police car, two members of the _Madoushi_ group welcomed them and led them to this room they obviously had built to keep corpses – and Keith knew no other word – fresh.

"Is this even legal?" Hunk asked. He kneaded the hem of his shirt with nervous fingers and was obviously freezing as he only wore his lighter shirt. "Can people have such rooms to keep corpses like this? Or is it because they are yakuza and have to expect to be ready just in case to store their members?"

"Could you keep it down a little?"

Hunk flinched as Lotor stood suddenly behind him.

"Sure, Sir, but… Sir, is this alright?"

Lotor frowned and looked aorund. Then he shrugged, his usual calm face hadn't been moved by any emotion once, neither from the corpse nor by the cold. "I think there is no law that bans to build such a room."

Keith's eyes wandered back to the corpse.

"I wonder if all yakuza groups have rooms like this," he mumbled.

Lotor chuckled. "Keep wondering, Kogane." He went to the door. "I'll ask if they can tell us now what happened to this poor guy."

"He looks kind of… smashed," Hunk stated. A disgusting look was on his face as he looked down on the table.

"What do you mean?" Keith wanted to know.

"His face. It looks flatter then normal faces, don't you think? His nose seems gone and… flat." Hunk bit his lower lip as he kept staring at the deah whose face and upper body were covered with a white and clean cloth. "Uhh, can't we just get out of here? I feel so uncomfortable in this room. I don't wanna know how many corpses they have kept so far."

 _Indeed_ , Keith thought. _How many dead members or other people had been laying on this table already? How many blood had this room seen?_

"And I'm freezing," Hunk complaint further. "It's like a giant fridge."

"Hunk, now is not the time for jokes."

"I'm really freezing though."

Keith nodded. "Let's go."

They left the room and entered a small hallway before they found Lotor and two other officers with the _Madoushi_ members in another – normal – room.

Those weren't the headquarters of the _Madoushi_ but rather a side branch within the city. The headquarters of every group were well hidden and only the members themselve knew about their own headquarter. Otherwise, things would be settled differently, but without honour.

"My name is Daiba Lotor," the chief introduced himself while bowing a little. "I'm the chief of the _Hyogoken_ police department and in charge of the investigation about the three dead men we found at the container harbour. I guess that this case is connected to the dead man you have next door." He looked to Keith and Hunk as they stood next to him. "This is Kogane Keith. He is having the main investigation at hand. And this is Garrett Hunk, leading assistant."

Keith and Hunk both bowed.

"Thank you for coming," one of the _Madoushi_ said. He had dark hair, ending above his ears. He wore a dark suit and a tie, disappearing under his coat. His face showed no emotions but his eyes were sparkling, as if he was happy to talk to the chief.

Keith sensed a somewhat powerful aura around him.

"My name is Amano Takao," the man continued. "And I'm the second in command of the _Madoushi_. This here is Kira. You may just call him like this."

Amano and Kira both bowed, though Kira's bow was deeper.

Kira was about the same age as Keith, his hair was dark brown and tied in the neck. He seemed a bit nervous.

Keith was stunned to meet the second in command of the _Madoushi_. Now, he already saw at least two of Kobe's Wakagashira within two days.

"May you explain how one of your members died?" Lotor's mimic was indifferent, his eyes calculating and his lips a straight line.

"Sure," Amano said. "My men told me this story as I haven't been there myself as it happened."

"Can I ask what the name of the dead man was?" Keith asked.

Everybody turned around and looked at him, either surprised or amused.

"What does it matter now?" Amano said, a sneering smile flickered on his lips. "He is dead."

"Well, I'm sure of it, but I would like to call him something and not _dead sorcerer_."

Amano was obviously not pleased about this pun, but Keith didn't alter his mimic and waited for an answer.

The second in command of the _Madoushi_ sighed. "Tanami Ryuu," he said shortly.

"Thank you."

"May I explain how he died now?" There was slight anger in his voice but Keith kept calm. He had experienced worse than a displeased yakuza.

"Please proceed." Lotor nodded.

The story they told was somewhat familiar. With every new detail the Wakagashira explained, Keith's eyes grew bigger and his heart missed a few beats. Hunk seemed to react similar.

Something felt utterly wrong.

The man had been at the storage where Keith and Hunk had followed the _Blades_ the day before. There had been a fight with four men of the _Blade of Marmora_ and as a result, one of them had attacked Tanaka. He had crashed into an ailing wall and had died soon after since the broken wall had damaged his lung and spine. He had been brought by his fellow members to this building but he had already died during the car ride. The _Madoushi_ had decided to call the police, acccusing the _Blades_ as murder.

Keith didn't follow the further conversation quite well. His chest hurt and his hands were fists. It must have happened after they had left. He clearly saw the four men checking out the storage, examining the dusty ground for traces of a gone table. And just before they had proceeded for the other rooms and buildings which were connected by corridors, Lotor had called them back.

Keith gritted his teeth and stared at his chief, whose mouth kept moving as he talked to the _Madoushi_.

Who was the victim here? Were the _Blades_ really murderer?

Somewhere out of his normal hearing range he noticed that a doctor would be called to examine the dead man. The _Madoushi_ would be contacted soon.

The two yakuza left the room and Lotor was about to make new orders but Keith couldn't wait any longer.

"Why did you call us back!?"

Lotor turned around, surprised about the sudden outburst.

"Sorry?" He asked, apparently oblivious.

"That day. We were observing the _Blades_. We've been at this site. You called us back because it was too dangerous and..."

"Oi, Keith." Hunk tried to calm his friend down but without any positive outcome.

"Well, I was right, wasn't I?" Lotor asked.

Keith frowned. "What do you mean?"

"This man died, Kogane."

"Do you believe the _Madoushi_?"

"You don't? This man is obviously dead." Lotor tilted his head. There was no sarcasm in his eyes.

"I can see that." Keith took a couple of steps towards his chief. "But why do you believe that the _Blades_ killed him? Can't it be an accident?"

"Well, we don't.." Lotor bit his lip and his eyes revealed a troubled feeling. As if there was something he hadn't thought through.

"We don't know, exactly!" Keith ended the sentence. "We have to investigate this and until we solve this, nobody is a murderer!"

"Alright, Kogane. It's your job." The chief seemed to have made a decision, albeit he didn't look as if he was very fond with it.

"Huh?" Keith was more than irritated. "I'm in charge anyway."

"I know you are. And I think that those two cases are connected. Therefore, please reveal the murderer."

Keith crossed his arms in front of his chest, his hands still fists. He knew that he was stared at by the two officers whose names he had forgotten and Hunk, wo was still standing behind him.

"Why did you call us back? We could've helped them. Tanaka wouldn't have had to die like this." Keith was still angry about this, his body trembled.

Lotor seemed unmoved by this statement. "If things are as Amano just said, we could have two police officers less. And I rather take you two instead of one yakuza."

"Wh-what!?" Keith was infuriated. "Would you say our lifes are much more worth than Tanakas?"

"And maybe this is a reason why he didn't want to teach you his name." Lotor came closer and put a hand on Keith's shoulder. "Kogane, listen. And listen well."

His eyes had a threatening glance and if Keith wouldn't be Keith, he would be afraid of him right now.

"A man died. He himself probably killed someone else before. The yakuza's order of things is different than ours. We are police officers, we care to protect what is important for the public welfare. Even if this means that there is something we loose along the way."

Keith nodded slowly. He wasn't completely consent with this but he knew that this was the main purpose.

"And Kogane." Lotor's squinted his eyes a bit, the usual light colour got a dark glimmer. "Please remind yourself that it's _me_ who gives the orders. I would be very pleased if you could do your part and follow them, even if you would disagree how I do things."

Keith opened his mouth and was about to say something to at least defend his good will, but one of the police officers came into the room, clearing his throat.

"Excuse me, Sir. But we got a note from the police department."

Lotor turned his head around. "What is it?" He asked, his undertone was still dark and demanding.

"The _Blades_ are at the station and want to clarify some things."

Keith was stunned about this fact, which made him forget the discussion they just had. Lotor seemed surprised as well.

"Well," he said, let got of Keith's shoulder and straightened himself. "This is a turn of tides. I'm very curious to hear them out."

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Keith and Hunk were the first to be sent back. Lotor was driving together with the other two officers.

While Keith was manouvering the police car back to the station, Hunk threw him angry glances once in a while.

"What is it, Hunk? Just spill it out already and..."

"I can't believe you did that! How could you accuse our chief, Keith!" Hunk really didn't hesitate to shout out what he had kept inside. "We're here to safe people, not to attack the ones close to us."

"I wouldn't say close, really." Keith shrugged. "But I was right, Hunk. Didn't you notice? He made it look as if the _Blades_ were the murderer. He just accepted the words of the _Madoushi_."

"Yeah, well..." Hunk didn't seem to know an answer to this. "But..."

"No _but_ , Hunk. There is something wrong and I need to know what it is. We have four dead men, what else will happen?" Keith still felt his anger within his chest. "Sorry, bud. I didn't mean to be angry at you too." He threw a short glance towards his friend.

Hunk smiled. "It's alright, Keith." He thought about the words for a while. "But your're right. Too much happened already. And now the _Blades_ are at the station? I'm impressed."

Keith chuckled.

"Well, let's see what they will tell us."

He drove through the city and as they got more and more closer to the police department, Keith thought that it wasn't that much of a strange things for the _Blades_ to show up. It could be a trick, of course, but in the past the yakuza and police had worked together. Why not repeating things if the outcome was for the greater good?

They reached the station wihtout many more words. As soon as Keith and Hunk went inside, another officer told them that the visitors were brought to the guest room.

Hunk had some concern whether they should wait for Lotor's arrival or not. Keith had already decided go to and have a look at the special guests himself.

The room was located in the first floor and had been kept plain, a table, a couple of chairs, a painting at the wall and curtains in front of the barred windows. A police officer stood in front of the door since it seemed that the _Blades_ attracted some attention by the workers in the department, although barely anyone knew who exactly they really were.

 _But maybe they had a certain aura which marked them as yakuza_ , Keith thought while he walked upstairs, a nervous Hunk following him.

They just reached the door, as a sharp voice behind them let them flinch.

"Kogane!"

They turned around. Lotor was rushing towards them, his white hair flying bewildered, his mimic still calm but a furrow had made their way into his temple.

"Sir?" Keith asked as if nothing had happened.

The chief stopped right in front of him. He didn't seem to have hurried as he was still breathing normally. Keith doubted that his chief could ever looked like as if he was in trouble. But there was still the daring aura he had felt during their fight earlier.

" _I_ will speak to them."

Keith frowned. He was just about to answer as Lotor continued.

"Those might seem like innocent men but there are people who look much less obvious and have killed more."

"Would you mind having me accompanying you?" Keith suggested. He knew that there was little space once his chief had settled on a decision.

Lotor fixated him for a while, probably deciding whether this was a good idea or not. Keith noticed Hunk watching forth and back between them, fearing a new fight coming.

"You may watch," Lotor finally said.

Keith just nodded, although being surprised, and followed his superior into the room.

There were two men waiting, one stood in front of the window, watching the traffic from above. The other sat on a chair behind the table and seemed nervous enough to repeatingly tap his feet on the ground.

As Keith closed the door, both looked towards them.

"Good morning," Lotor started to greet them. "My name is Daiba Lotor and I'm the chief of this police department. And this," he threw Keith a glance, "is Kogane Keith, in charge of the investigation of a matter connected to the recent case of dead _Madoushi_ members."

"Thank you for hearing us out." The man from the window spoke. He was huge, much bigger than Lotor who was a tall person himself. His face was calm as he spoke, but there was something in it which revealed that he had seen things Keith didn't want to imagine. A black coat hid most of his body, but he seemed more of a wrestler or pro-killer than an officer worker.

"My name is Marune Regris and this is Kenchiro Thace."

Both bowed.

"We are from the _Blade of Marmora_ group and we're here to explain a couple of things."

"Please take a seat, Marune-san." Lotor offered while making a gesture with his hand. The two yakuza and Lotor gathered at the table while Keith kept his position next to the door.

"Please, proceed."

Marune-san nodded. "We are… informed that the _Madoushi_ accuse us for murdering one of their members. I guess that they already contacted you, the police."

"They did, indeed," the chief confirmed. "May you explain how the man died?"

It was a direct question and Keith was unsure whether it was a good idea or not to ask the _Blades_ this directly. But Marune nodded slowly.

"Two days ago, four men of us were investigating some buildings in the northeastern part of the city. There, we..."

"Why?"

"Sorry?" Marune frowned.

"Why did you investigate those buildings?" Lotor frowned.

Marune and Kenchiro exchanged a glance. It was obvious that they hadn't expected this question and were not prepared to give an honest answer. It may didn't seem like it to a normal person but Keith saw this right away.

"Well… Our group has it's own issues we're confronted with and those buildings were part of a project we are working on." Marune Regris's face was calm, nearly emotionless.

Lotor nodded. "Alright," he just said.

"As we were going into the buildings, we eventually met six members of the _Madoushi_. They accused us for barging into their territory and ordered us to leave. They reacted quite violently and as they started to get physically, we defended ourselves. In fact, one of us is still badly wounded and needed to be taken to the hospital." There was worry on his face. "As the fight took place, one of us pushed a man aside and he clashed into a weak wall. The _Madoushi_ tried to use a knife and our member wanted to defend himself."

"Is he one of you?" Lotor wanted to know.

"No." The Blade shook his head. "We didn't deem it wise to take him here."

"Understandable."

"Does it help in the matter you're investigating around the dead man? We didn't kill him on purpose as they were the party who attacked us."

"I understand," Lotor said once more. "I must say that it was good of you to come here. Unfortunately, the _Madoushi_ have made a formal accusation which means we have to find the truth and judge it by law."

The two Blades were openly surprised about this.

"I'm sorry to hear this," Marune said. He exchanged a glance with Kenchiro once more but it was a rather sad glance. "What is the further procedure?"

"There will be an official hearing as soon as an appointment can be done. All of the present members of your group during the fight have to be there. As well as the _Madoushi_. After this, a judge will decide how to proceed with the one who pushed the man."

Keith was surprised about this outcome. Not about the part that there was an official accusation since those happened sometimes. It was rather the fact that it was dealed so quickly. It must've been decided after Hunk and him had left the location of the _Madoushi_.

Further, the Blades seemed both too calm after hearing this outcome. As if they had expected to be officially accused for murder. On the other hand, this behaviour was something which made them look more approachable.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


After the Blades had left, Lotor and Keith returned to the main office room where Hunk was chatting with a colleague. Keith was welcomed by a panting Kosmo who was looking for his owner to pet him.

"We have some things to do," Lotor said. "We need to gather all those information and forward them to the court. We need to do some bureaucratic things as well."

"Huh?" Hunk looked from the chief to his friend and back. The colleague seemed interested as well.

"The case concerning the dead man we found at the _Madoushi_ place today will get an official accusation," Keith said. He frowned since he didn't know the officer Hunk had talked to, but didn't mind his presence.

"Really? Why?"

"Because non of the two sides would argue in a way without accusing anyone else." Lotor crossed his arms in front of his chest. "The _Blades_ are stubborn and resistent and the _Madoushi_ too persistent as to back down a bit."

"We will need to inform both of the groups officially," Keith suggested.

"Yes, please do so."

"How much time do we have? Two weeks?" Hunk seemed to be doubting the time.

And it was indeed a short time to prepare everything but Keith thought that their chief was afraid of the yakuza doing anything if they waited much more longer. In order to prevent a rising number of sudden deaths, the appointment for the court has to be set relatively early. Though, there wasn't much influence they had.

"At best we can get it in two weeks," Lotor said. "I can imagine that the _Madoushi_ won't be satisfied with this but they will need to accept it."

He clapped his hands together and sighed, looking from one to another.

"Alright, let's get started and do the proper arrangements before anyone else gets killed."

And with those more or less motivating words, Keith, Hunk and their colleagues got started.


	11. Phone Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A phone call is made at the beginning of the night.

The everglowing digits of the clock on some officer's desk switched from 22:59 PM to 23:00 PM.

As most of the police officers had left the main office, the ceiling lights were switched off and each table – separated by canvas – spread a lonely yet neat atmosphere.

The light blue curtains were pulled aside, leaving the windows to embrace the light of the moon and the passing cars of the main street. Once in a while, the dashing sound of an arriving or departing train in the _Sannomiya_ station was hearable.

Only the emergency room, separated from the main room – was manned by a couple of police officers who would take calls or patrol the station and the rest of the city.

The dimlight allowed a few sights on the ordered desks, chairs, the scattered bins, files and documents laying on the table. There was Keith's table in front of the wall where he had put up the pictures and name tags for the yakuza groups. The picture of the young woman, the leader of the _Madoushi_ , was enlighted by some cars which gave her a somewhat frightening look.

The fluffy pillow Kosmo used to take naps when Keith was in the office seemed especially comfortable in the dark light.

Nobody was in this room.

Except one.

He was sitting at his usual desk, telephone receiver in his hand. His face layed in the shadows and only his pale hand resting on the table was clearly visible in the moon's light.

"Yes, I understand," he said, voice low and deep to not be noticed by the emergency station. "I know that this sucks but I can't change it."

The voice on the other side said a few words. They seemed harsh.

"No," the man said. "No! Why don't you understand!?" His angry voice broke.

"There is nothing I can do in my position, you know that very well."

A car passed by.

"It's two weeks, at minimum. Maybe even longer. It can't be changed according to our wishes."

A pause.

"No, I'm not lying."

The traffic calmed down a bit. The clock showed 23:07PM.

"Yes, indeed. I think two weeks is managable. And don't lift a finger to do some more of this crap we already have to deal with, you hear me? If something happens in those two weeks it will firstly be suspiscious and secondly counterproductive."

23:09PM.

"I know that you want to get rid of them to finalise this deal, we can't decline it yet."

Silence. Some more harsh words followed.

"As I said, I can't accelerate the process. There is a lot of bureaucracy which needs to be done."

The man leaned back, his face still in the shadow of the room. His hand had formed a fist, angry veins popped up.

"May I remind you that it was _me_ who had warned you that there were two police officers near the storage the day it happened? You can be lucky that _this_ is the outcome instead of being arrested right away due to fraudulent representations."

He nodded.

"Yes, I know. I will let you know if there is more we can do. But as I said, don't do anything until the accusation. Yes...yes, alright... Bye."


	12. At the Court

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the court has come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rather summarised, but yet still important.

The preparations for the official accusation were done accordingly.

Even though it took some time to schedule everything – which includes inviting the _Blades_ and _M_ _adoushi_ , setting up all required documents, and preparing and executing debriefings – they finally finished after fifteen days in which nothing unusually happened.

Keith was a bit surprised about this. On the other hand, if there would've been something like another dead out of nowhere, it would effect the outcome of the whole process.

The calm atmosphere from the yakuza's side was a bit too obvious, showing that there was indeed something going on. And this fact made Keith nervous. He would've been at ease if something had occured. Not a further dead body necessarily, but something small. Snitching some evidence as documents or pictures from the other group for example.

But nothing at all.

Thus they all found themselves in the court of the city on a clear Wednesday morning in the middle of September.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


The room was plain, brown rows of chairs and benches were arranged at the back, the front was built higher for the judges to sit down. There was a chair in the middle of the square for the witness or the accused.

Keith and Hunk were sitting behind the highest head of the Kobe police department and their chief, Lotor, who was the executive chief of Hyogoken. There were some more officers connected to the case as well as some who were in charge of security. A couple of vurious visitors had gathered, as well as the staff from the court and a young woman who would create drawings of the accusation since pictures weren't allowed.

The _Madoushi_ group was present. Their leader wasn't attending but the second in command, Amano Takano, came instead. He nodded to Lotor, Keith and Hunk as they had seen each other before. There were a few who would explain what had happened and some more of their group were sitting on the benches on the left side of the room.

The door was still open and Keith looked around since he hadn't seen the _Blades_ yet. He knew that they had arrived but they got to be lead into the room by the clerks. This would happen at different times for the groups, due to safety reasons.

And just as Keith was thinking this, there was a bunch of people coming in, guided by the court's clerk.

The four men which had happened to be at the scene where the _Madoushi_ member had died came in, followed by a few more who were guided to the benches to the right side.

Keith's eyes observed the group of four while they were told to sit down on the chairs on the right side of the typical court's rectangular.

There was Kenchiro Thace, who had come to the police department, and Marune Regris, who was sitting among his fellow members on the benches. The other two were a big man with a calm face and broad shoulders and the white haired man who was the second in command of the _Blades_.

The fourth man was missing as he was the one who was taken to the hospital due to his injuries.

It felt somewhat familiar to see them here as they had met before. They all seemed calm and didn't threw any mad glances towards the other group as the _Madoushi_ members were doing as soon as the first Blade had entered the room.

Especially the white haired second in command was striking. Maybe because of his unusual haircolour, but that wasn't the point for Keith. He noticed a certain atmosphere coming along with this man. There was confidence and peace accompanying him, as if he knew what would happen today and that there would be nothing to be afraid of.

The Wakagashira nodded politely towards the _Madoushi's_ second in command, although it wasn't answered with cheerfullness. After, his gaze was scanning the entire room, maybe a habit, just like Keith did it as soon as he entered an unfamiliar surrounding.

One thing which was remarkable was the bandage covering his nose and which was taped to his cheeks. Keith heard that the second in command had gotten injured during the fight, maybe this was the last bit of the healing process? 

"What was his name again?"

"What?" Keith turned around and saw that Hunk was going through the documents they had brought.

"The name of the second in command. We could fill some gaps while we debriefed the members, right? You really don't remember?"

"Uh, I don't know."

"Really? Ah, wait." Hunk got out some papers and read through it swiftly. And without looking up, he added: "By the way, you're staring at him. Don't do that."

"Huh?" Keith blinked surprised and now he realised that his friend was correct. He shook his head and demanded his eyes to stop following the white haired man.

But he failed.

He couldn't help himself and thought that he was truly georgous, his atmosphere as well as, well… his body type.

"Here!"

Keith flinched and looked at Hunk again.

"His name is Shirogane."

"Shirogane?" Keith thought about this weird name and the hair colour of said man.

"Yes, really. Shirogane Takashi."

_Shirogane Takashi._

Keith thought about his name once more. It sounded quite nice and his family name was easy to remember.

And just before he could start to lose himself in thoughts about this georgous man, the judges came in and as soon as they ordered everybody to sit down and stay calm, the accusation finally began.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


The whole procedure took a long time and Keith was always surprised how long it can be to describe half an hour in which the whole incident had happened.

The _M_ _adoushi_ and _Blades_ took turn to explain what had happened on that specific day. There were harsh words and some insults spoken, but it was nothing that extraordinary.

Even Keith and Hunk were asked several question as they had observed something in advance. They had discussed about this before if they really wanted to do this, since both of them would be revealed to the yakuza. Hunk had been afraid but his sense of justice was stronger than his anxiety which is why he'd agreed to it.

And Keith had agreed right away.

While he went up front and spoke to the judge, he felt the constant glance of the second in command of the _Blades_ to his right. When he finally turned back to take his seat, Shirogane and him exchanged a glance, which made a shiver running down Keith's spine.

The three present men who had been part of the incident were asked one after the other. It was a pity that Shirogane didn't say as much as Keith had wanted. His voice was deep and calm, just like a thunderstorm.

The time went by and two breaks were already taken, before the accused man was interrogated. His name was Antok and he explained in a slow and mild voice what had happened, who had attacked him and how he had reacted in defense of his own safety.

Keith understood many things during the accusation and saw that both of the yakuza groups were caring and protecting their members. But Keith acknowledged that the _Blades_ were accused for the wrong. The man Antok had defended himself and this was it. Moreover, the heavily injured man, whose name was Kizuna Shiya, was still in the hospital which needed to be considered in the judgement of this case as well.

Nevertheless, a person had died and this couldn't be ignored either.

In the end the judge decided on self-defence, but the _Blades_ had to pay an according sum to the _Madoushi_ group.

Thus, a long day at the court ended and even though it ended relatively good, Keith just wanted to go home and sleep.


	13. A beautiful Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the court.

The scratching of chairs and the rising volume of chatter filled the courtroom as the hearing was closed. The judge and his colleagues disappeared into the back room, most of the people moved towards the heavy wooden doors, and the head of the police department started to discuss the hearing with Lotor.

Keith watched the two yakuza groups. The _Madoushi_ were clearly unsatisfied with the outcome but didn't dare to say anything at all. Their grim looks and stern faces expressed enough of their feelings.

They were still guarded by the clerks, who stood tall and firm in their black uniforms close to the chairs and benches.

Keith observed how Antok was guarded to another room where they would proceed with the further steps of the outcome of the hearing.

Shirogane had taken the outcome pretty much level-headed. Maybe this was how he expressed relief but Keith couldn't tell. He seemed rather indifferent, as if he had expected today to end like this.

The _Blades_ talked quietly with each other before they were guided by the clerks out of the room. They passed the benches where Keith and Hunk were still sitting, trying to collect their documents and files they had brought. And this was the moment where the white haired man and Keith exchanged glances for the second time today.

His eyes had a dark colour, showing a perfect contrast to his white hair. They were sparkling a little as soon as they met Keith's. The police officer swallowed and reacted out of reflex. But his body moved on his own and he bowed briefly but raised an arm to greet him the Western way as well.

The yakuza leader was obviously surprised. But then his lips parted into an amused smile, showing his white teeth. There were dimples forming around the corner of his mouth. His eyes were squeezed shut for a moment.

It was a beautiful smile.

Keith felt himself blushing and tried to smile it away, but he still felt the embarrassement running hot through his whole body. The man, Shirogane, bowed lightly and nodded commendatory, before he followed his fellow members.

Keith stood in awe and stared at the broad muscled back of the suit wearing yakuza, who had accepted his silliness just like that, with a smile.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Back at the office, Keith flopped down on his chair and sighed, folding his arms above his eyes. Kosmo, who had stayed at the office, trotted towards him and laid his head on Keith's thigh, demanding him with pleading eyes to pet him.

Keith smiled tired but happy to see his dog and followed the pleasant demand.

"What's wrong?" Hunk asked who observed his friend's face.

Keith mumbled something, too tired to answer properly.

"Please, Keith, tell with words."

"Wanna go home."

Hunk chuckled. "Me too, buddy. But the chief said to come here."

"Oh come on, we were at the court the whole day! I just want to go already and sleep the sleep which I haven't had since a month."

"You'll get the opportunity for sure." Hunk sat down at his own desk. "What about this yakuza man?"

Keith frowned and lifted his arm, which was still covering part of his face, to see his friend. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you were looking at each other and, uh, had your fun? Maybe I missed something?"

Keith shrugged. "Maybe," he said. "I don't know myself."

"Oh."

Keith waited for more but Hunk kept silent.

"Oh?" He asked.

"I mean." Hunk made a thoughtful expression. "If you don't know, how could you possibly explain?"

Keith stared at him, surprised about his words. "True," he finally managed.

"Is everybody here?"

Keith and Hunk flinched as the loud voice echoed through the whole office room. They saw Lotor coming in, hands in his hips and frowning.

"Yeah." The four police officers, who had been ordered to the office after the long day at court, answered monotone.

"Alright, then we'll get going. I know that the hearing is done and the case about the dead man can be closed. But we still have three corpses who were killed at the second harbour and I want to know who it was and why."

Lotor stopped and stepped between Keith, Hunk, and the other two officers.

"Those were our major problems in the beginning, right?"

Keith nodded.

"We know that those two groups we saw today are somehow connected to the three dead man. Yet nobody of them would give us any clue at all. Any suggestions?"

Hunk shrugged. "How about observing them?"

"Good idea. What else?"

"Try to plant a bug on them?" Keith mentioned.

"Yes, very good. Anything else?"

The others were silent.

"Then we start with observations. Keith, Hunk, you will start tomorrow morning. Ken, Watanabe, you will go in the evening." Lotor looked at the according faces.

The four of them nodded.

"We need a proof. It doesn't matter how small it is. Anything important will be needed to solve this. I want to know why the men were killed and who is responsible for it. Especially the _Blades_ should be observed, as I don't trust them."

"How about the _Madoushi_?"

"I don't trust them as well." Lotor's voice got darker, full of anger and disgust he put inside.

Keith was surprised about this. Their chief was a composed man with balanced emotions throughout his speech. This was defintily new.

Lotor calmed down again but he still seemed a bit out of it.

"Please go home and take some rest. Nothing will happen tonight anymore. I'm sure of it."

And the four police officers didn't need to be told twice.


	14. Scar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro inspects his healed injury.

It's been three weeks since the incident in the _Madoushi_ storage had happened and one week after the hearing at the court. The past days had been calm, the life had somewhat returned to a normal level.

But not everything was solved yet.

Shiro was in his room and stood in front of the mirror which was put up next to his wardrobe.

After those three weeks he finally got to remove the bandage which had covered his nose. It was mostly healed, only a little bit of scab was left on his skin.

It was clear that it would leave a scar. A clear cut, running from the left cheek to the right over the bridge of his nose. It wasn't the first scar for Shiro, but it was the first in his face. Therefore, he would always be reminded of this fight over this stupid deal and that they had been tricked for the rest of his life first thing in the morning when he was about to look in the mirror to shave ot brush his teeth.

He cursed quietly and closed his eyes for a second.

A man had died. No. Four men. And Shiya was still in the hospital with one of them constantly watching over him. There was still a chance that the _Madoushi_ would do something to him in terms of revenge. The case of the storage was solved, Antok had paid a lot and the _Mad_ _o_ _ushi_ couldn't do anything else in front of the judge to make their right valid.

What else was left then revenge for the dead?

 _No, there was more_ , Shiro thought. He frowned. He really wanted to know what exactly had happened and why they were cut off from the deal so suddenly and moreover _why_.

The outcome of the hearing could've been worse. Shiro was relieved that it was only a fine they had needed to pay. But nobody would be able to bring back the taken life's.

Shiro covered his face with his hand and sighed deeply.

They should've never killed them. It was wrong and he felt the burden on his heart like a heavy fat corpse. Of course Shiro'd life had been in danger, or at least they had thought it, but maybe they had been wrong. What if the _Madoushi_ had never wanted to kill Shiro?

Shiro dropped his hand and looked at himself in the mirror.

There was a white haired man with a red scar across his nose. He had grey eyes, a square chin, some stubbles on his cheek and a worn-out look. He only wore soft pants over his boxershorts.

Shiro lifted his hand once more and touched the scar, the memory of the things which had gone wrong in the past weeks.

"It looks kinda cool, you know."

Shiro turned his head, surprised to have heard a voice from the open door.

It was Thace. He nearly looked as tired as Shiro felt but he at least had manged to shave and was fully dressed.

Shiro tried a smile which he barely managed. "Thanks," he said, but he wasn't sure himself whether this was an honest answer or not.

Thace observed him for a while without saying anything at all. He was obviously worried but Shiro was kind of relieved to not hear any pitying words when he was about to think about everything himself.

"The leader says that we will change the guard in the hospital. For Shiya."

Shiro nodded.

"Who…?" He just started to ask but Thace already answered.

" _I_ will go."

"Alright. Thank you. Tell him my regards. I will come by when..."

"When you know what to say?"

Shiro stared at Thace. He shrugged. "Well… yes."

"It's okay, Shiro. Stuff like this happens sometimes. Especially in our field. It could be worse, trust me."

Shiro flinched a little at that since he knew that Thace had seen things far more worse than three dead men at the _Wind Graveyard_.

"Sorry," he said quietly. And he really meant it. "I shouldn't have..."

"It's okay, Shiro." Thace leaned against the frame of the door. A soft smile was on his lips. "I understand. It's not that I'm the only one with bad memories. And besides, you're in a difficult position. You need to think and decide on the things we execute. Don't underestimate the burden of thinking about who to kill."

Shiro's eyes grew bigger as he listened to his old friend.

"Maybe you're right."

"I know." Thace chuckled. "Well, I'm off to see our fellow Blade." He raised a hand for a goodbye.

"See you later, Thace."

"Bye."


	15. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Blades are called to the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, Shiro..  
> I promise, the next chapter is gonna be more fulfilling ;)

It smelled like rubber and germicide mixed with the scent of the inside of a morgue.

The walls were – without exeption – painted in a plain white, the room's window was opened that the fresh September wind would touch the curtains. There were some flowers from two days ago on the nightstand next to a notepad and pencil.

Several machines stood around the white bed like mechanical servants. They had been humming throughout the past week to keep the man alive who laid in the bed.

Now, they were silent.

The man was still there, his face pale, nearly as white as the walls. And there was a second man in the hospital room, laying close to the door with the face on the floor. But every Blade would recognise him right away. He was supposed to guard the hospitalised man.

But…

Thace had been killed as well.

A loud _THUMP_ made the present nurse flinch. She intuitively moved a meter away from the second in command whose face was distorted.

"What happened!?"

Shiro was grunting, breathing heavily as he questioned the nurse and the doctor who was present as well.

"Sir, this is a hospital," the doctor said calmly, not the least irritated by the harsh behaviour.

"I don't care! I want to know what happened here! Why are there two corpses when there's supposed to be non!?"

"It happened during the night, and, uh..." The nurse started to explain. But once she confronted the more than angry yakuza – standing in the doorframe with a black suit, tie, and dark coat looking furiously from the nurse to the dead Blade and back – she got understandably nervous.

"Please proceed," Regris said with his usual calm voice. He moved from behind Shiro to his side, putting one hand on his shoulder. To keep him calm or to keep him from attacking the hospital stuff, no one was able to see the difference.

The nurse nodded and explained, stuttering and trembling, what had happened. Her dark eyes switched nervously forth and back between the yakuza but glanced to the corpses as well.

"We have three ti-times in the night where we go a-around and have a lo-look if everything is alright with the pa-patients. Those are usually at 23:00 PM, 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM." She tilted her head to avoid Shiro's angry glare.

"The machines who kept Ki-Kizuna-san alive must've been switched off when we were not here. The life maintaining system wasn't running anymore and th-therefore… therefore.." Her lips trembled, tears formed in the corner of her eyes.

"Your… colleague was badly injured, especially his lungs were damaged heavily. He was connected to the artifical ventilation and at the time this wasn't running anymore, he slowly passed away." The doctor finished the explanation.

Shiro swallowed hardly. He knew very well which machines had been set up in order to keep Shiya alive. They had talked a long time with the doctor when they had brought him here as his condition had been more critical than they had thought.

But how?

How could this have happened?

He clenched his fists, trying to not throw a tantrum in the hospital room where two fellow Blades had died just a couple of hours ago.

With every last bit of calmness he could muster up, his voice slightly fluttering, he asked: "Are there no sensors which would detect something like this?"

Still, there was furiousity in his words.

"Excuse me, Sir." The doctor frowned. "But this is a _hospital_ , not a jail. Nobody would unplug any machines with the intention of killing someone."

"Apparently there is. So I'm asking you, why did this happen?"

The doctor seemed obviusly confused.

"I think our second in command means _how_ could this happen?" Regris noted.

The doctor nodded slowly, it was nearly a bow.

"As Akiko-san just said, they are going through the rooms three times at night. Your colleagues were found in the early morning. Thus, I assume that somebody must've come after 4:00AM to unplug the machines."

His calm voice had something agitating. Shiro was about to loose his composure once more if this doctor continued to speak in this low irritating voice.

The grip of the hand on his shoulder became stronger while Regris cleared his throat.

"Did someone see anyone? Or heard something?"

"No, Sir," the nurse answered. She was a fragile looking woman with silky black hair, slim neck and reddened eyes.

Regris nodded.

He let go of Shiro and kneeled down beside Thace. Without touching anything, he examined him from head to toe and back. When he seemed satisfied, he waived his hand towards his superior and Shiro followed his lead.

It wasn't that Shiro had never seen a corpse. He may had seen too many for his age already. But seeing a fellow Blade – a friend, someone he had grown up with – dead in front of him, there was something in Shiro which wanted to stir up a fight.

"Look." Regris pointed on Thace's neck.

Shiro squinted his eyes and looked closer. There was as small red dot as if a thick needle had penetrated his skin.

"I expected this somehow," Regris said. "It looks like he was killed while using a sound absorber."

Shiro just nodded. He didn't know what to say and he was afraid to be too forward and shout at Regris who was a big help after they had been called by the hospital so early in the morning.

"Sir," the doctor said, his voice calm as ever. It probably never changed. "I must remind you of the fact that we took your… colleague in custody although we knew which occupation you're doing. We wanted to help this injured man and I don't really care who you are and what you're normally doing. You seeked out help. This is a hospital and we will cure the people, if we're able to."

He cleared his voice.

"Nevertheless, we have two corpses and there was obviously someone who did this on purpose. I don't know which enemy of yours this was or what kind of things you have going on right now, but this is murder. And I don't tolerate murder in our hospital. Further, it's obvious that we need to call the police."

Regris got up.

"Of course," Shiro heard him say. "Please call them as soon as possible. We will stay in contact with you if there is anything else we need to discuss. We'll stay here until the police arrives."

Shiro grunted. He got on his feet again and glared at his friend who responded with an indifferent look on his face.

"Sir," Regris said. This time it was directed towards Shiro. "Will you stay?"

Shiro blinked surprised. He knew that Regris was able to settle things with the police himself. And Shiro wouldn't be able to stay longer in his room. In this suffocating hospital with a doctor who was only interested in the still living people he could cure.

Shiro sighed.

"I'm going," he said and rushed out of the room towards the stairs.

*~*~*~*

  
  


Three days had passed after Shiya and Thace had been found dead. The funeral was set in a couple of days and there was nothing else to do as to wait for it.

Shiro was in his room, a glass of Shochu in his hand as he was sitting on the armchair next to the window. There was nothing much to see outside, except the faint lights of the station and some advertisement for condoms.

The ice in his glass was long since melted but Shiro couldn't muster to drink up. He only wore pyjama pants and nothing else.

He had thought a lot about the incident in the hospital. He had talked to Regris about it since he had been Shiya's guard before Thace had come. But he hadn't noticed anything. No suspicious person, no car parked in front of the hospital, neither on the backside, or anything else they would check if they have members accommodated somewhere else.

Shiro had lost his composure for a moment and he regretted it. He had been truly relieved that Regris had been with him at that time but it wasn't enough. He still wanted to revenge what had been done to his… his friends.

But this already had been the revenge, from the other side at least, and thus there wasn't much Shiro could do. They were already too deep into the whole thing and if they would kill the _Madoushi_ for what they had done to Shiya and Thace, the murdering would go on until there was nobody left.

"Maybe this is a way to end a war," Shiro mumbled to himself. "What do we have to loose anyway?"

He squinted his eyes. The members of the _Blade_ appeared in his head.

Kolivan.

Regris.

Antok.

Thace.

Shiya.

There were many more, some who were still living and some who had died along the way. So many Shiro knew from when he was small and so many he had come to know while he had grown up among them. Some of them were still living here and some were living somewhere else in Kobe. But they were all a family.

Shiro's family.

They were everything he had and he wanted to protect them.


	16. Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet at a bar, a yakuza and a cop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My favourite chapter!!!  
> It's pretty long (6k oops), ahem. But I deemed it to be worth it. Also, I hope this compensates some lacks and that it's not too fast in action but I thought that it fit to the story and the characters.  
> Note: Change of POV after the marked paragraph.

The smell of old wooden benches and freshly brewed whiskey mingled with soft chattering and calm music.

Compared to the ever busy weekends, the number of people in this bar tonight was a rather manageable amount. Shiro liked to come during those calm weekdays. When there were enough people to not be too striking himself since he sometimes exuded the aura of a yakuza member, moreover with an un-Japanese like hair colour. But yet on these evenings, there were enough people so that he was able to observe the interesting ones.

And once in a while he would meet up with someone or get to know them close enough so that they would leave together.

When Shiro came down the steep stairs into this certain underground bar, he examined the whole room. A familiar bartender was cleaning a glass behind the counter, there were some couples in the corners and people sitting at the well used table on dark wooden chairs. The stage was empy.

It had taken some time for Shiro to re-establish himself after all the troubles.

After two more days Shiro had finally found the motivation to leave the headquarters and go somewhere with more than two people present.

They hadn't done much in these days except arranging the funerals for their members, sorting their belongings and what else came with the death of two close human beings.

Kolivan had been easy on Shiro and the second in command knew it. There was still some work waiting for him but it would be okay to go out for a while and live out another part of his life.

Therefore, Shiro ended up in the bar district.

Now, he stepped further inside and got out of his coat. He sighed, satisfied to be in a familiar surrounding, and as he looked around to see if there was a good spot to sit, he noticed a familiar black haired man sitting on a bar chair.

He went over and turned towards the man, surprised to see the police officer investigating both cases the _Blades_ were already involed with.

"Mind if I join?" Shiro asked.

The officer had examined his glass, but raised his head. His eyes grew bigger when he recognised Shiro. He clearly remembered him as the yakuza member he had seen at the court. He didn't say a word which is why Shiro frowned.

"Or were you, uh, looking for someone special?"

The young man opened his mouth to say something, but didn't seem to know what.

"I can go if you're waiting for someone or..."

"Ah, no, sorry. I'm not waiting, so… please." The cop made a gesture with his hand and it made Shiro somehow relieved to know that he wasn't waiting for anyone.

He ordered a whiskey from the bartender and glanced towards the cop again.

He had long black hair which was tied in his neck. His eyes were a mixture of sparking blue and mystical violet which made him appear attractive. Neck, arms, waist, and legs were slim yet firm. There was a powerful body hidden underneath the casual clothes which were a definite difference to the black uniform Shiro had seen him in before.

He was beautiful.

Shiro noticed that the cop was looking at him as well. Maybe it irritated him that he was observed so intensly.

"What?" Shiro asked out of confusion.

"You look really tired." The cop smiled. A bit shy but his eyes were full of honest worries.

"Well, I am." Shiro laughed with a raspy voice. He somehow liked that the cop was worried about him. "Well..." He sighed and waited for a while.

The bartender brought his whiskey and he took a sip of it.

"You know about the dead men found at the hospital, right?"

The cop nodded. "I was called that day. First thing in the morning." He chuckled but then he seemed startled once he looked back at Shiro. "Sorry. I didn't mean to complain. They were you're friends. But… it was sad to see them laying there."

Shiro hadn't expected this. He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Now it was the cop's turn to be surprised. "Because they died," he said, as if it would be most natural thing to explain the matter between them.

"But… we're yakuza."

"What does it matter? If my friend would die, I would weep like crazy, you know? What does it matter if you're a yakuza and I'm a police officer? When we die we leave people behind who will be sad about it."

Shiro stared at him for a long while. It might have been too long as the cop started to blush and drank his beer until he started coughing.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes.. Yes, I'm fine." He swallowed hard but seemed alright.

Shiro nodded slowly.

"You're right," he murmured and lifted his glas. He noticed that the cop observed him from the side. "We were sad. Even our boss was. He is usually… really calm."

"Although I never met him, I can imagine that."

"How so?" Shiro asked but he didn't need an answer. And there was non. The cop took his beer and stared at the bottle for a whole ten seconds before drinking it.

Shiro sipped from his own drink as well.

"It's Thursday," he said then.

"I know that." The cop giggled quietly. "Is today important for you?"

"Ah, no, I mean." Shiro shook his head, smiling. "It's not the weekend, you don't have to work tomorrow?"

"I'm a cop, Mr. Yakuza, we have something called _wo_ _r_ _king shifts_ where I sometimes have to work at the weekend as well." He grinned.

"Right, I forgot."

"And besides." The police officer turned a bit on his chair so that he could face Shiro properly. "It's my day off tomorrow, so I thought I could..." He frowned.

"Get off?" Shiro sugested.

The cop smirked. "Yeah, I guess."

Shiro swallowed. He knew perfectly well that this was a gay bar and that he had come here knowing this as it had been his intention. But seeing this young cop who smirked while talking about finding a possible partner for the night was too much.

Shiro drank two big sips of his whiskey and felt his throat burning. This was definitly getting interesting.

"So, uhm, Shirogane-san," the cop started.

"Just call me Shiro. Otherwise I would think our boss is behind me." It was a joke but the cop looked still serious, so he laughed a bit. The cop's mimic relaxed.

"So Kolivan Shirogane is your father?"

"You know his name?"

"He was mentioned during the questionings when we were talking to your fellow _Blades_." The cop said it casually but the way he spoke _fellow Blades_ remembered Shiro of Thace.

He sighed quietly and nodded.

"Yes and no," he said. He noticed the cop's irritated smile and explained a bit more. There was no harm in doing so.

"When I was still a baby I was put in front of the headquarters of the _Blades_. They found me, they raised me. Kolivan became my father instead of… whoever left me behind."

"Maybe they were forced to do so?"

Shiro looked at the cop whose face was still honest.

"Yeah… maybe," Shiro said. "Anyway, I took his name and became his son. As for my name… Just Shiro is fine, really, everybody calls me like that."

"Everybody?" Curiousity was in his voice.

"Well, at least the people I want to call me like that." He winked at the cop. He couldn't help himself. "How about you? Were you born in Kobe?"

"Ah, no. I'm from Osaka. I was in the police academy over there as well and got here when I started to work at _Hyogoken_."

"I see." Shiro was surprised. Not about the topic itself but rather that they were able to talk so easily to each other.

They continued to exchange more about themselves, without giving too many details. They talked about Osaka, Kobe, the harbour, the countryside, their traditions, the cop's dog and the food Shiro used to cook during his free time.

They drank while they were at it and as there were people coming and going, the only person Shiro could look at was the cop in front of him.

Once in a while, when Shiro was to take up his glas or order a new one, he would notice that the eyes of the cop where glancing somewhere between Shiro's legs. Shiro suppressed a chuckle as he was kind of interested as well. And there had been a reason, beside drinking, to come here.

"Is it fully healed?" The cop asked.

"Huh?" Shiro frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Your nose. It was all covered in bandages when we were at the court. It will leave a scar for sure." There was this kind of soft warming worry in the dark eyes of the cop which made Shiro's heart throb. Surprisingly.

Shiro lifted a hand and wanted to touch the bridge of his nose, but the cop was faster. His slender fingers were already on his skin. They were cool and left a pleasant feeling tingling through his body.

"I'll be fine," Shiro managed to say. He didn't know why he felt so flustered right now. "But yes, it will scar for sure."

"It feels a bit rough. Have you been to a hospital?"

Shiro hesitated. "No," he finally said. "I haven't. We normally treat those kind of wounds ourselves."

"Those kinds?" The cop frowned. "What do you mean?"

Shiro couldn't tell whether he was angry with him for being careless or just worried.

"We normally have our own supplies and care for ourselves. I guess that many hospitals don't want to deal with yakuza members as we might attract more troubles than normal patients." Shiro laughed dryly. "This belief kind of sticks with us the whole time, you know."

The cop bit his lower lip and nodded understandingly. "I see," he murmured. "Does it still hurt?"

Shiro smiled. He raised his hand and took the cop's fingers in his.

"No, I'm fine."

They looked at each other as they were holding each others hand. Shiro would have been surprised about this but they were already past this stage.

And as if they had agreed on it beforehand, they both cleared their throats while letting go, retreating their hands once more to themselves.

Shiro took his whiskey and the cop his beer.

"So, uh, you said you're free for tomorrow and… tonight?" Shiro asked. He wanted to sound casual but his voice broke a bit. Maybe the young man hadn't noticed.

The cop put down his bottle and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm totally free to do whatever."

Shiro nodded slowly. "Care to join me?"

There was a small pause where the cop looked up from his beer to meet Shiro's eyes. He was smiling softly, one side of his mouth curled up more than the other. Shiro's heart nearly began to stutter but then he finally got a reply.

"Yeah, sure."

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


"I never thought that you would be such a romantic person," Keith said while he watched how Shiro undid his pants and pulled them down.

"What do you mean? Are you in some kind of plays or something?" Shiro looked up, frowning.

"Hm… I didn't mean that."

"Wait, what is the pause for?" Shiro chuckled.

Keith smirked. "I like it in different ways, but… this is totally fine."

Shiro nodded and went on to remove the pants completely. "So, what did you mean by romantic?"

Keith tilted his head, still watching Shiro.

The yakuza had positioned himself in front of Keith who sat on the edge of the hotel bed. After the pants were removed, the clearly excited dick in Keith's underwear was visible. Shiro reached out and started to knead it, eliciting a surprised gasp from the officer.

Keith tried to focus on his words which he wanted to say before indulging himself in the pleasure the hand of the buff man already created.

"When we…. came out of the bar and went back to the street."

"Yeah," Shiro said, smirking slightly as he watched Keith trying to get a grasp of himself.

"You said this one sentence and I thought that it was really true. It was… ah… kind of romantic." Keith bit his lower lip and looked at Shiro with half lidded eyes.

"Sentence?"

"Yeah, the one with the dark time and the dawn."

Shiro frowned but nodded as if he remembered.

It hadn't been that long after they had left the bar and came to the close by hotels which both of them seemed to know quite well of. It wasn't Keith's first time here but he didn't dare to say anything to not hurt Shiro. But… Shiro had known that it was a gay bar and had come for sure with a similar intention as Keith had.

" _It is said that the darkest time of the day is just before dawn_ ," Shiro said once more.

"Yeah, uh… this one." Keith reached out and grabbed the white hair of the big man in front of him to pull him closer. "I really liked it."

"Even though it was romantic?" Shiro laughed.

"Yeah, even though. There's nothing wrong with being romantic." Keith shrugged. "And it's kind of true. There might always happen something worse than the things which already happened."

"And when dawn comes, there is light and hope," Shiro conlcuded.

"Yeah," Keith confirmed and nodded. He sighed and watched Shiro who was still massaging his dick. He looked down between them and noticed the ever growing bulge between Shiro's thick thighs. He couldn't help himself but swallow, suddenly thirsting for something he hadn't known of.

Shiro had noticed his glance and chuckled.

"Undress," Keith demanded.

"Yes, officer." A joyfull salute followed his words.

Keith chuckled. "No, not this, please."

Shiro nodded. He let got of Keith's underwear, got to his feet and took of the shirt he had worn underneath his suit. The tie was already loosened and the buttons opened. He slid if off and let the shirt fall to the ground.

He slowly went on undressing himself with unzipping his pants and sliding them down. They were black, just as the suit and the tie, the shoes and his gloves. Only his shirt was white, just like his hair. It certainly suited him and Keith wanted him both ways: dressed as well as undressed.

Keith crawled further onto the broad hotel bed and observed how Shiro removed every part of clothes he wore, ecxept for his boxershorts who weren't exactly hiding anything anymore.

Shiro was a buff man indeed, and not the show off type but rather the power fueled type who would be able to settle any argument with the things he had trained. His arms and legs were flexing, veins ran below the skin which had been ripped apart and healed again, leaving long and short scars all over him. His back – mostly covered by a broad picure of a lion – seemed sturdy, strong muscles were running from the neck over his shoulders and down the spine, forming a web of thick tendons giving him strength and structure. His chest was broad and there were formed muscles on his abdomen.

Keith wanted to touch him, everywhere. And as Shiro came down on the bed to kneel in front of him, Keith reached unconsciously for his skin and touched somewhere above the navel.

He was warm. Warm and soft and as he moved, Keith felt the muscles running under the smooth surface which was broken here and there by roughly healed scars.

"Ah sorry." Keith blinked and noticed that he had touched the yakuza man without asking.

"It's okay." Shiro reached forward and fetched his hands, before Keith could retreat them. "You can touch me, I'm alright with it. I want to touch you too." His voice was low.

Keith felt himself blushing. "G-go ahead," he said quietly and cursed himself for stuttering.

He felt two big hands on his shoulders, pressing him down with tender force. And when he looked up, he saw a thoughtful mimic on Shiro's face.

"No need to be so careful. I'm experienced," Keith noticed.

Shiro seemed surprised as his eyebrows jumped towards his white hair. But then a soft smile was on his lips. "I figured. But I like it this way. If you're fine with it."

Keith nodded. "Sure."

When Keith's back and head laid flat on the bed, the yakuza positioned himself above him, both of his legs to the side so that Keith's thighs were resting on Shiro's.

"Well," Shiro said and there was amusement in his voice as he looked down on Keith, letting his look roam over his body. "I always wanted to fuck a police officer."

Keith frowned but he saw the smirk on Shiro's lips and understood that it was meant as a joke. But… there was something different in doing this. It wasn't how Keith had imagined it. Not that he had this intention form the very beginning but he didn't dislike it either. On the contrary, now, where they had met this way, he couldn't imagine it any other way at all.

Shiro was surprisingly kind and tender and there was something more. Keith felt that he was treated with value, as someone who wasn't only a one-night-stand found at a bar. He was rather someone he would meet with respect. Keith couldn't tell whether this was due to the fact that they knew each other from before or not. If the circumstances would be different, this meeting would've probably ended different as well as they had been nothing more than yakuza and police officer before.

Now, their relation to each other seemed to change.

"Which position do you like?"

"Huh?" Keith blinked. "Ah uhm…" He thought about it while looking up to the buff yakuza with muscled arms and whose eyes were the most tender things he had seen in the past weeks.

Except for his dog's eyes of course.

" I.. want to see you." 

Shiro tilted his head. "The vanilla type, huh?" 

"Not that often though. I just want to see how you move and... your face when you come." Keith flustered voice made Shiro smile.

The yakuza raised an eyebrow. "Sappy," he said chuckling, but added seriously: "But this is defintly a good plan. Not that I had a different intention." He frowned. "You wanna kiss?"

"Hell, yeah!"

Shiro chuckled before his mimic got more serious, more filled with want. He leaned forwards and stabilised himself on his left arm. His right arm laid beside Keith's head and his hand cupped Keith's cheek, stroking his hair and skin.

Suddenly, the yakuza's face was close, very close. There were two grey eyes having the softest glance Keith had seen on a human being. They observed Keith for a moment before they closed. His cheeks were covered with stubbles but Keith didn't mind them when they touched his skin.

At first, a soft kiss was pressed on his temple and cheek and Keith already wanted to take things in his own hand, when the yakuza finally found his mouth.

It felt like he was melting into a mould where his mouth perfectly fit into. He parted his lips and a strong tongue slid between them, which started to suck on his tongue.

Keith couldn't help himself but gasp and wrap his arms around Shiro's back and shoulders, as far as they reached at least. He liked how the muscles were moving below his hands, he liked how the warmth spread over and penetrated his skin. He couldn't stop touching Shiro who was all over him and sucking the life out of his tongue.

The bigger man was definitly skilled and Keith wondered how many times he had come to this or another bar to meet someone for the night as today.

Keith didn't really mind that Shiro had most likely done these things to others, since Keith did this regularly himself. He was rather happy that they had met today, got to talk, and somehow ended up in this hotel room.

They kissed long, longer than Keith had with anyone else he had met so far. Not that he always kissed the men he went to a hotel with. Shiro had come on a higher level than all those before already.

Shiro gave him one last deep kiss, before he moved on to the cheeks, throat and shoulders. He kissed a long wet trail down his chest. His hand followed and twisted Keith's nipples while kissing his abdomen.

Keith felt his blood leaving his brain – and most part of his upper body – as it all rushed down to his groin. His dick was throbbing in his boxershorts and he wished for Shiro to finally reach his navel and beyond. But he just felt too good as that he wanted to have it end so early.

When Shiro finally slid his fingers below the waistband of the shorts to pull them down, Keith sighed. It was a relief to have the pressure gone as the fabric had been pressing on his sensitive parts. The fresh air felt weird on his wet dick, flopping against his lower belly as it was suddenly freed.

Shiro got on his knees and fetched his coat from the nearby chair. He rummaged in his pockets, searching for something.

"I've got lube and condoms with me, they are in the pockets on the right side of my jacket," Keith mentioned while he observed the yakuza.

Shiro raised his eyebrows. He seemed definitly surprised. "Why?"

Keith chuckled and was about to answer, but Shiro shook his head.

"Wait, forget it. Dumb question."

"Yeah. We came for the same reason, right?"

Shiro nodded slowly. "Right side you said?"

"Yep."

Shiro left the bed, his weight suddenly missing on the mattress. He got the small bottle and condoms and returned.

Keith reached out for the lube. "You can give me this, I can do it."

"Huh? I can't?"

They looked at each other, surprised.

"Uh, well..." Keith tilted his head. "I would normally do this myself. I experienced some things already so I always make sure that I'm prepared befo..." He hushed.

Shiro came closer, putting his hands on both sides of Keith's shoulders since he was still laying on the bed.

"Don't tell me you…," he started. But before he could examine Keith's face in detail for any hint of an answer to his unspoken question, he reached down below Keith's legs and pressed gently against his hole.

Having him suddenly touch there was a bit too much and Keith couldn't help himself but moan and reach out for Shiro's arm to hold onto something.

"Sorry, but… you're soft already."

Keith smiled, pieces of arousal still visible on his face. "Well, yeah. I prepared myself at home before I left."

"So you always..?"

"I never come unprepared."

Shiro frowned. "I always make sure that.."

"Not everbody is like you. Once there was a guy who just wanted to start right aw.."

Shiro kissed him suddenly. His hand grabbed Keith's chin tenderly to keep him in position. The police officer was too surprised as to repsond right away but did eventually.

And then, Shiro let go of him and looked at him seriously.

"Don't talk about other men when I'm right here," he whispered, his voice more raspy than before.

"Jealous?" Keith smiled softly, but he didn't want to make fun of it. He actually thought that this was rather cute. Having a jealous yakuza in front of him.

"If we're about to do it in foreseeable time, yes."

Keith nodded, still feeling Shiro's hand at his skin. "Alright," he murmured. "Go on," he added, voice low and soft.

Shiro observed him with a hunch of worry in his eyes. But he nodded slightly, before he started to move downwards, nestling inbetween Keith's thighs.

Keith put his head back on the pillow and listened to the soft _pop_ of the bottle which was opened now. Shiro put some lube on his fingers to warm it before he approached Keith's hole again. This time tenderly as he started to stroke over the ring of muscle.

He surely took his time before he started to use two and finally three fingers.

Shiro thrusted them in and out, eliciting some lewd sounds which both of them ignored. While his fingers scissored Keith's insides, the police officer couldn't help but gasp and squirm in pleasure. The yakuza's fingers were long and firm and much thicker than Keith's, reaching place where he barely went himself.

He enjoyed how gentle Shiro prepared him and nearly regretted that he had done so much in advance and at home already. But maybe Shiro overdid it a bit since Keith got much more sensitive than normally and felt himself coming closer to the edge.

Just before he would come, he reached out and grabbed Shiro's hair and the white haired man withdrew.

It made Keith gasp as the warm slick fingers slid out of him.

"Too much?"

"Too good," Keith answered.

"Sorry."

"No need to be sorry about it." Keith chuckled.

"I just wanted to make you feel at ease so that you might forget about things others did to you." Shiro frowned while he thought about his action and his motivations behind it. His eyes were still fixated on Keith's hole which made their situation a bit absurd.

Keith loosened his grip on Shiro's hair and stroke his cheek. "It's alright, Mr. Yakuza. My conscious is only here."

Shiro nodded. "Okay, so..." He got up on his knees once more. "Can I remove this?" He slid a finger below the waistband of his own boxershorts and looked at Keith questioningly.

"To be honest, I waited pretty long for this. So yes, get rid of it." Keith chuckled and wanted to play it cool. But his heart started to race and he swallowed as he observed how the last piece of fabric separating them was removed, revealing a dick which he had never seen before. It was thick and looked heavy, with precum dripping from it's tip and a vein running underneath. The foreskin was already retreated, revealing a dark head. There was a slight bow in it's form, clearly visible as it was resting against Shiro's stomach.

Keith practically stared at it, kind of proud that he was about to get fucked by this dick presented right in front of him.

Shiro positioned himself and pulled Keith's legs above his own thighs.

"Can I?" He asked and Keith blinked several times before he could look up to the smirking grin on the yakuza's face.

Unable to form any words, Keith nodded. He felt that he was already out of breath. He lifted his head to observe Shiro's doings as the man opened the condom package. He unfolded the thin material and rolled it smoothly over his erected dick.

Then he came even closer so that their thighs touched. He placed his coated dick in front of Keith's hole and this was the first time where Keith was afraid if it would really fit.

Shiro moved slowly but certainly and when he finally pressed inside, Keith gasped and put his head down again.

"Fuck," Shiro said. "You're not as tight as I expected."

"But not too loose either, right?" Keith managed to counter speak.

"Do you want me to think that you need it, huh?" Shiro had paused while moving to look down at Keith. It gave the police officer enough energy to respond and time to adjust to Shiro's tip.

"What if I do?"

Shiro smirked but didn't say anything.

"I know this bar since a long time already and… _uff_."

Shiro had pressed further inside, pressing the air out of Keith's lungs. There was a certain madish grin on Shiro's lips. Maybe another sign of jealousy.

"It's not that I only went there for just a drink," Keith added.

Shiro stopped moving. "So, what do you think _I_ did there?"

"Looking for a police officer who investigates the murder of the opposing group which you might have or not have done?" Keith tilted his head, observing Shiro's reaction to his blunt statement.

Shiro seemed to hesitate, but then a raspy laugh escaped his throat.

"You might be correct with this."

"Oho, is this a confession?"

Shiro chuckled. "No, not quite. I mean, I could propably tell you which would safe a lot of time. But… I guess I want to see the work of your brain a bit more." 

Keith smiled, somehow satisfied with this answer. "I see," he said.  He waited for the yakuza to continue since he guessed that about half his dick was  already  buried inside of him. But Shiro still seemed to be in thoughts. 

"Would you still be here if you knew that I was a murderer?"

Keith didn't answer right away. There was something sad in the voice Shiro had asked with. As if he would regret doing this if it was against Keith's morals and standards.

"Somehow," he said carefully yet determined. "I have the feeling that you never killed anyone."

Suddenly, Shiro's face revealed many emotions at once which had been hidden behind his calm smile. There was a hunch of a shock, surprise, and moreover astonishment.

"Nailed it?" Keith asked.

"Partly," Shiro answered. "Not with my own hands but… Even though I ordered someone else to do this, it always happens because I need to. Because I want to protect the _Blades_. I never kill without a reason."

"But you never actually killed?" Maybe Keith wanted to make sure, but he didn't think that it would change anything at their current situation. He knew that Shiro was a yakuza member but there was so much more behind the actions of those groups that Keith had expected a certain motivation, a reason, something which made those members do what they did.

The big man looked down on Keith, his face still showing bits of the emotions which had been revaled earlier, but most of them were well hidden again.

"I never killed someone myself," he finally said while tilting his head a little. "But I deem the deaths I ordered as my doings. As if I would've been the one who killed them."

Keith thought about. "I must say that I'm kind of glad, Shiro."

Shiro raised his head once more. And somehow the gleams of the dimmed lights highlighted his white hair, his square chin, his tender grey eyes, and the doubting look he had.

He looked truly beautiful like this, Keith thought.

"Your world and mine are different," Keith said. He reached out and touched Shiro's arm. "But that doesn't mean we can't connect them."

He looked down between them where Shiro's dick was buried inside his hole. He needed to smile all of a sudden.

"Well, literally speaking, but I really mean it."

Keith laughed and Shiro joined him. It freed them in some kind of way, taking the tension which had grown with their conversation.

"You really think so, hm, Mr. Police Officer?" Shiro's voice got low again, a melancholic look appeared in his eyes.

"I really do so, _Wakagashira_."

Shiro smiled. He took Keith's hand and stroke it up and down. "No," he said, it was nearly a whisper.

"Hm?" Keith asked. He enjoyed the warmth spreading over from Shiro's fingers onto his skin.

"Call me. Call me by my name."

Keith blinked perplexed. This was so cheesy that he had never expected this at their current situtation, in their current roles. But he didn't mind. He actually was fond of this idea.

"Shiro," he said quietly and his voice created another smile on Shiro's lips, which widened from one cheek to the other.

"And not to be blunt but please deepen the connection we have here." Keith fingered along Shiro's dick to his hole.

Shiro laughed. "As you wish, but… What is your name?"

Keith was too surprised that he just stared at the man above him.

"When I come, I don't want to scream _police, police_ , or something." Shiro chuckled over his own words and imagination.

Keith grinned. "I thought I would be the one screaming?"

"Nice to know that you have high hopes in me."

"Of course." Keith shrugged. "I imagined this way before we met at the bar."

"Oh, really?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.

Keith nodded, slightly embarrassed about it.

They lost themselves in the eyes of the other, surprise and embarrassment mixing together.

"Keith."

"Huh?" Shiro blinked confused.

"My name. I'm Keith."

Shiro hesitated before reaching out a hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm.." 

Keith laughed and slapped his hand away, putting no strength behind it. 

"We're already behind those cheesy introduction. We're in the middle of something if I may remember you of it?"

"True," Shiro said, throwing a glance to their junction.

"And now fuck me already and say my name as many times as you need."

Shiro's smirk returned. "Sure," he said and with a soft snap of his hips, his cock moved further inside.

He kept a slow pace until he finally was seated in Keith' insides. The police officer had never felt so full in the past months. And he sometimes had imagined this but the real thing was way better than all images and situations he had imagined so far while being alone at home.

But Shiro kept his slow pace.

"Stop teasing. Fuck me properly already!" He said grumpily.

Shiro chuckled but Keith noticed that he struggled with keeping his composure.

"I just want to savour what we are doing. Maybe it's the only chance we have to do this."

Keith frowned. "Do you really think that this is the last time we're doing this?"

Shiro was surprised. "Well..." he said.

"Come and fuck me already or I might change my decision."

The yakuza was silent but made up his mind quickly. "As you wish, Mr. Policer Officer."

Keith chuckled and wanted to remind Shiro to say his name, when Shiro made a sudden movement out of his hips, burrying his dick to the hilt inside of Keith. It pressed the remaining air out of his lungs but the pleasure Shiro's dick created was amazing.

Keith grabbed the pillows gathered around his head and bit his lower lip to suprress a scream of pure bliss. Shiro's cock felt incredible as it moved inside and out of his hole.

Sure, he had taken many cocks already, some bigger some smaller, in various shapes and length. But Shiro's seemed to have the perfect side. A good combination of length and circumference. It stretched the ring of muscle good enough to not feel too empty and his length touched where Keith would never be able to reach with just his fingers.

Once in a while he would look up to see Shiro's face. He wore a concentrated expression, biting his lower lip and his eyes were closed. But he seemed to notice that he was observed and responded to the gaze his a hazed look.

His eyes had a tender expression; they were darker than before, full of lust and pleasure. A soft smile was on his lips which let out soft groans whenever he changed the angle a bit, making them both moan.

Keith reached out and although he hadn't thought of what he actually wanted to touch, he was glad to reach warm skin covering moving muscles. He scratched his fingernails softly above Shiro's abdomen and moved upwards to touch his nipples.

Shiro's mimic showed that he liked it. But there wasn't more to explore as he dropped his hand again next to Keith, lowered his body, and pressed himself gently against the police officer's chest.

While stabilising himself, he grabbed Keith's head and hair and burried his face into the crook of his neck.

"Keith," he groaned, the sound echoing through Keith's whole body.

"Uh, no fair," the police officer managed to say and sighed. He wrapped an arm around Shiro's back to hold him close.

The yakuza still kept thrusting, hitting Keith's insides, now from a different angle.

It felt amazing.

The constant friction of Shiro's body against his own, moving along with the rhythm of the thrusts, made Keith's erected nipples sensitive.

Keith tried to wrap his legs around Shiro's ass and thighs but there were too many muscles in front of him and too less strength in him left as he would have managed it.

Shiro's hand, which had been buried in his black hair, moved downwards and it made Keith curious of what the yakuza had planned.

He felt the hand shoved underneath his butt and suddenly his whole body was lifted. It made Shiro's dick graze over his prostrate in a delicate position.

Keith screamed, the muscles of his neck tensed and relaxed as he dropped his head on the pillow.

He had come, the amount of stickiness covering his stomach was obvious enough.

Somewhere behind the sphere of bliss and joy he bathed in, he heard Shiro's groan and a moan, before he filled the condom with his own cum. And there was a little thought in Keith's head that he wished the cum had filled him up to the fullest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?


	17. Something Silly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro thinks about the past encounter and is yet called to a new one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title... is stupid but I couldn't think of anything else, sorry.

Shiro sighed and flipped another page of the report he was reading. It was about the latest activities of their group which he had to know of. The deal with the _Madoushi_ wasn't the only thing they had been doing which is why he needed to back-up the things which had happened in the meantime.

The problem was that he couldn't focus at all. Whenever he closed his eyes, the face of the firm police officer came to his mind.

_How he had laid on the bed, naked and ready to be taken._

_How his body had moved and reacted when they had kissed._

_His attempt to wrap his legs around Shiro's waist but couldn't manage._

_His face when he had come._

Shiro sighed and rubbed with a hand over his eyes.

Maybe it had been a dumb idea. Maybe it was the vulnerability he had felt after the loss of two close members,  leading to this stupid  idea  of sleeping with a  cop. And not any cop, but the one who  c ould get him into jail if  something went wrong  in the nearby future .  He couldn't even lay the blame on being drunk since he was used to having whiskey. He would need much more than what he actually had had to do a decision full of idiocy. 

And yet, here he was. 

But… 

There was nothing in him which regretted the whole thing when he should. Moreover, he had loved to do, well, Keith. He had gotten to know something of this specific police officer and somehow, their conversation had eased his mistreated heart. 

Shiro sighed

It was late already, nearly 1:00 AM. He had wanted to finish reading this before going to bed. But he clearly couldn't focus anymore. He let the page, he still held between his fingers, go and leaned back at his chair.

Maybe this had been a wrong idea. He had went with the flow and slept with a police officer he first had seen at a court. He was investigating the murder Shiro had ordered.

It made him feel guilty all over.

But it anyone was to blame, it wouldn't be Shiro alone.

Keith knew who Shiro was but had nevertheless slept with him. And it seems that he had truly enjoyed it. Same as Shiro.

When he remembered the act they had done merely two days ago, when he thought of Keith's features, his movements, his way of thinking, his words, his…

He knew that he already felt fond of him. His heart started racing whenever he thought of repeating what they had done and when he started hoping that it would be soon.

"No, Takashi, no." Shiro groaned. "What are you, a romantic youngster?"

There was the possibility that Keith saw the act and Shiro himself as what it had started: a simple one-night stand.

On the other hand…

Keith had said himself that it doesn't had to be the last time they were doing it. And boy was Shiro in for another round.

 _I need to stop thinking about it_ , Shiro admonished himself as he felt his dick twitching interested while pictures of a moaning Keith popped up in his head.

For now, he wasn't sure where this was leading and what would happen next or at all, considering that Keith was still investigating the three dead man. But so far Shiro was happy that it happened and would treasure the memory of the night if it should be the very last one they had shared together.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


"Shiro!"

Shiro grunted and turned around.

"Shiro, you need to wake up!"

"Hm?" The second in command blinked. He was still tired and his body ached as if he had fallen asleep on a chair.

"Wakagashira, there is a call and we need to go, now!"

"Regris?" Finally, Shiro could figure out who was standing next to him.

"Yes, it's me. And how come you're not sleeping in your bed? Besides, the time. It's nearly 11."

"I slept a whole day!?" Shiro raised himself and indeed, he had been sleeping on the chair. It was a comfortable chair but still.

"It's 11 in the morning." Regris's voice was back to his normal calm self, even though there was a dispraising undertone in it.

"Oh." Shiro looked down at himself. He still wore yesterday's closes. "Let me get change. And tell me about this call."

While he got out his clothes and changed, Regris leaned his body against the doorframe and explained about the phone call.

"Actually, there are two calls. It gave us some more hints which is interesting. The first was a woman. She said to be with the _Madoushi_ but I'm not so sure about it _._ She _d_ emanded we should meet them at a certain place and bring you with us. "

"Why?" Shiro slid his arms into a new shirt and closed the buttons.

"Because they might suspect you of murder of the three men?"

"Good point." Shiro frowned. "So… They gonna kill me or what?"

"Who knows? But they said they had some evidences and they would contact the police if we don't follow their orders."

Shiro shrugged. "If they really have evidences they would have already done so. We were at the court, they had time enough for this."

"Fair enough," Regris nodded approving. "Nevertheless, we need to check it out, otherwise our image would crumble. They might attack us in a more dangerous way. And threaten us more."

"Of course, I understand." Shrio slid in his pants and closed the belt. "The second call?"

"A man. He said that he was a member of the _Madoushi_ and talked about things only the very core and us would know. He was mainly threatening us to not do anything related to the deal we had anymore."

"So, a true member. Do you think the other was a fake?" Shiro hesitated. "Just asking whether I should keep dressing or not."

"Keep dressing." Regris said, his voice indifferent. "But yes, we think that those were true members. They also had some intel that only _Madoushi_ would know of."

Shiro thought about this while doing his tie. "You think there is another group forming within the current _Madoushi_ group?"

Regris nodded. "Not only that but I think they existed for a longer time already, a couple of months, maybe a year or longer."

"I see." Shiro slid in his shoes and took his coat. "I'm ready."

"Took you long enough."

Shiro smirked and he saw a hunch of amusement in the corners of his lips when he followed Regris outside.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


They drove less than 15 minutes to reach the destination they had been called to. Regris had ordered two more to come with them since this call was of a different sort.

It was a normal apartment building with a broad front door and narrow balconies, some of them showing freshly washed laundry waiting to be dried by the air.

Shiro was about to head towards the door but Regris held him back.

"Not there."

"Huh? I thought it would be this building." Shiro frowned.

"Not quite. Follow me."

Shiro was irritated by the intel they had gotten through the telephone, but nodded and followed the fellow Blade to the small lawn next to the building. It wasn't anything special, a sandbox, some play tools and such things were gathered. They passed it and walked along the paved way leading towards the backside of the complex.

The building was quite big and Shiro saw that there was a garage close by for the cars of the apartment owner. Regris was heading straight towards it, thus Shiro assumed that this was the final aim.

As soon as they were within earshot to the garage, the sidedoor was opened and a man came out. He looked like a yakuza, Shiro could tell right away.

He wore a suit and a black shirt underneath. His hair was short and once they came closer, Shiro noticed a bit of black ink tatooed to the man's neck.

"We waited," he said with a dark voice, his mimic seemed indifferent.

"Thank you," Shiro said and there was a part of him which actually meant it. For now he wanted to test whether this _Madoushi_ would show any reaction to his pun or not.

He was disappointed.

"This way," the _Madoushi_ said and Shiro, Regris and the other two followed.

The garage was bigger than it had looked like. There were a couple of cars but non of them seemed extravagant or too expensive. It was a normal apartment with a garage just behind the building itself.

Shiro wondered how the _Madoushi_ got to have a part of this building since the section they were heading to was separated by the cars with a thick wall and a heavy duty door.

Doubts came over Shiro as they were guided through this door and found themselves in an empty room which looked like it was made to kill people.

The second in command had a very bad feeling about this.

There were five _Madoushi_ members. Shiro knew two of them and one particularly good. It was the second in command of the opposing group: Amano Takao.

"Shirogane," he welcomed him with a sneering grin. "Long time no see."

"I wouldn't really say so." Shiro shrugged, but he felt his muscles tensen.

There was something off. They wanted to find out if there was a second group forming within the _Madoushi_ or not. The way it was now it looked like it either wasn't, or the _M_ _adoushi_ had a bigger problem than Shiro had imagined.

"I can see that your nose is healed again. Sorry to hear about the scar it left."

Shiro didn't say anything.

"I'm sure that you have many questions why we called you here, but let me say this first." Amano stepped closer, his dark clothes made him melt with the atmosphere the _Madoushi_ created. All of them were smiling and it creeped Shiro out.

"We know that you killed three men of us."

"There was something about evidences. Why didn't you show them to the judge when we were at it?" Shiro suggested.

Amano raised an eyebrow, before his mimic changed back to the smirking one he had worn before.

"Good idea indeed, why didn't we do so, I wonder as well." He came even closer. "I guess there are people who want to settle this… in another way. In our way, you know?"

"I understand." Shiro frowned. "But why?"

"As I said, there are certain people who would like to see you rather drowned in Kobe Bay instead walking aroung and shooting people."

"I never did that. Besides, who are those people? Any names by chance?"

Amano chuckled. "Really? You believe I would tell you any names?"

"Doesn't hurt to ask," Shiro mumbled while shrugging.

"Might be different in this case." Amano's lips still showed the same smile as before, but they gave a rather threatening feeling now.

"Are they from the _Madoushi_?" Shiro asked.

Amano chuckled. "You say that as if we were not members ourselves."

"Are you truly?" This time it was Regris who questioned them.

The ever smiling second in command frowned. "I guess you're right but wrong at the same time."

"Please explain yourselves."

"That's not why we called you here for."

"Make an exception for us," Shiro said. He tilted his head, his white hair fluff crossed his field of vision. "You're _Madoushi_ , right? We've known each other, although not very good, for a long time already. If you're no longer members anymore, I would like to undestand why." He smirked as he saw that Amano started to feel uneasy.

The opposing Wakagashira hesitated, his temple laid in deep furrows as many thoughts seemed to pass his mind at once. He made up his mind quickly.

"Since you're about to die anyway, I don't care," he said while fetching a gun from his belt.

Shiro bit his lower lip and cursed voiceless. He wished there would've been more intel he could've used but it seemed that Amano's order was obvious.

"I thought you wanted to call the police?"

"Just in case you didn't come. It seems our leader was right, you really are pretty curious, Shirogane." Amano's words sounded like a curse as his lips were distorted by his grin.

Shiro nodded. He had met the _Madoushi's_ leader a couple of times and was grateful for each time she didn't show up. She seemed to frighten everybody around her, except her closest subordinates. Even Amano didn't seem to be that close. There had been words about a possible heir but Shiro wasn't sure whether she had a child or something similar or not. But it seemed to be true that she inherited the leader position due to the death of her husband who had died in a gang warfare in Tokyo some years ago.

"Well, thanks for that." Shiro moved his own hand to his back where he kept his own gun hidden. There seemed to be no way around a fight which he hated.

He noticed that Regris and the other two Blades did the same. They also moved up front as to shield their second in command from possible bullets.

While the _Madoushi_ fetched their daggars and guns, Shiro quickly thought about possible movements. The opposing group was way more aggressive than usually and Shiro thought that this was an indication that those belonged to a different group, maybe one within the _Madoushi_.

But then there was no more time to think as the _Madoushi_ suddenly attacked them.

Two dark eyes fixated Shiro before Amano came rushing onto him. He raised his arm and tried to punch Shiro in the stomach but Regris was faster. He warded the attack off and crashed Amano's arm against his knee. The _Madoushi_ hauled in pain but recovered quickly, attacking Shiro once more.

As there were more _Madoushi_ than _Blades_ , they had an unbalanced fight. Shiro was on his own as Regris was distracted by two _Madoushi_ who tried to lure him away from Shiro.

Shiro and Amano encircled each other before trying to land another attack. Shiro lowered himself in defence, before hitting the other with his leg. Amano jumped to the side and crashed his fist in Shiro's shoulder. A dull pain shot up to his spine but didn't stop him from reaching for Amano's arm, pulling him to the ground.

Shiro kept the tall man down and tried to find something he could tie him with as he noticed that one of the fellow _Blades_ – his name was Takeo – was injured. His leg was bleeding and the _Mad_ _o_ _ushi_ standing above him grinned evily. Shiro thought that the _Madoushi_ would stop but he took his gun and pointed it towards Takeo who was holding his leg in a crouched position, staring at the directed gun with a grim look.

"No!" Shiro shouted but it was too late.

A gun shot resounded in the closed room.

The _Madoushi_ cried out, blood dripped from his shoulder.

Takeo's hand, which had held his own gun, was calm. His expression still had the grim appearance but the furrow between his brows was gone.

Everybody hesitated for a moment before continuing the fight. Amano freed himself easily as Shiro's attention had been gone for a second and tried to tackle him to the ground himself but couldn't manage. Shiro wasn't as tall but better trained. They tackled each other and Shiro managed to kick against Amano's leg to make him less manoeuvrable. In exchange, he received a couple of punches on his arm and back, he felt the bruises form already.

"Police!!" Someone screamed.

Shiro ignored the call as he thought that it would be fake to distract them once more. He wrapped an Arm around the _Madoushi_ and tried to pull him to the ground where he wanted to fix him once more. But he noticed that Amano hesitated in his movements.

"They are coming, a car parked outside. Three cops are heading here." One of the _Madoushi_ spoke, his face red from fighting or due ot excitement, Shiro couldn't tell.

Amano released himself out of Shiro's grip and got to his feet.

"Time to go I guess," he said. "Leave," he told his fellow members and watched how they escaped through a backdoor of the garage.

Amano turned towards Shiro and the other _Blades_ who stood there dumbfounded.

"We'll continue this another time." Amano shrugged while smirking at Shiro. Then, he followed his group.

"Must've been the residents, they could have heard the gun shot." Regris's voice seemed relaxed.

Shiro looked at him and saw a bruise growing at his subordinate's cheek.

"Yeah," he said. "Maybe."

"So, what do we do?" One of the other two, his name wa Kou, asked. "Should we try to escape as well?"

"I guess it's too late for that." Shiro pointed towards the door the _Madoushi_ had fled through.

Three cops had made their way to the garage. It seemed they had taken on the path the refugees had taken and followed it back.

There were two men and a woman. Shiro's heart dropped down for a moment as he noticed that it was Keith who had come.

"I hope we don't interrupt your escape," Keith said. He frowned and his face was even, but there was a soft hunch in his eyes once they met Shiro's.

"We weren't escaping. If you look outside you might still see the others run," Regris said with his indifferent voice, it nearly sound comedically.

"We did actually. They were really fast so we decided to go here instead." The second cop seemed a bit broader than a normal statue but his face was attentive and he seemed like a good companion. Maybe this was Keith's friend he had talked aout that night?

Shiro bit his lower lip. This was not the right time to think about that night for now.

Instead, he should act as if they met for the very first time in their assigned roles: cop and yakuza.

"May I know who you are exactly?" He tried and it was obviously a very dumb question. He regretted asking but now it was too late.

"We're police officers, Sir." The woman answered without a hint of amusement. She seemed younger than the two men so maybe she wasn't that long in service.

"Oi cop," Kou said and Shiro felt something bad coming from his mouth. "What's your name?"

Shiro turned around and made a sign to cut him off.

"I'm Keith."

Shiro's eyes grew bigger.

"Who are those, Americans?" Kou chuckled. "Are we infiltrated already or does the police of our country can't stand a chance against us anymore, huh?"

Shiro hit him on the head and Kou wimpered, glaring towards him.

"I'm Japanese though," Keith responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you hear that, Waka? Japanese!"

"I heard it, Kou. Now, quiet." Shiro smacked him again. "Sorry about him," he added towards Keith. "He is from another group and we took him in. He is a bit more… from the old school."

"It's okay. I'm rather sorry for him since he made his second in command apologise for him." Keith chuckled.

And his words had indeed a reaction since Kou seemed to understand what he had done and looked up to his superior, in fear and apology.

Shiro didn't know what to do right away. "We'll talk about that later," he said and Kou nodded, looking like a whipped dog.

"So, can we ask what happened?" Keith tried to get back to topic. "We were called since residents heard a gun shot from within the garage."

"Oh, nothing big, really." Shiro tried to smoothly ward it off. Of course it didn't work.

"They were really sure about the shot though." Keith raised an eyebrow.

"Ah well, sometimes..."

"And there is blood on the ground."

Shiro closed his mouth and followed Keith's finger which pointed on the red drops which were caused by Kou's weapon he had fired in self defense.

"You have good eyes for a newbie, really." Shiro scolded himself for talking nonsense.

"I'm a cop for over six years already," Keith countered, this time he seemed a bit angry.

Shiro sighed and exchanged a glance with Regris who nodded.

"We were called by the _Madoushi_ group. They accuse us for… a certain thing and they kind of wanted to kill me."

Keith's eyes grew bigger.

"We fought but before anything could happen you were here. Which ended the fight."

"I wonder why they planned on doing it right here in the first place," Regris said. "It was obvious that someone would notice gun shots from here."

Keith nodded. "For sure."

"But maybe this is exactly why they did that," the second cop said. "They wanted to kill you, Shirogane-san, run away and leave you here. That way we would find you quickly since the residents would call the police."

"I can assume that the gun shot wasn't intended?" Keith asked.

Shiro threw a glance towards Kou and shook his head. "It was pure self defense. We don't go around and kill people as we please."

"Sure. But why would there be a need to be discovered quickly? Why didn't they try to kill you in the night at the harbour or somewhere?" The question was directed to Shiro and as they saw into each other's eyes, the yakuza noticed the displeased look in the mystical blue. As if th thought alone was something Keith didn't really want to speak out aloud but had to.

Shiro thought about this.

"Since we've been to the court already, they want to mark us for the death of the.." He stopped talking as he wasn't sure how far the investigation proceeded so far.

"For the death of the three men at the second harbour?" Keith asked.

Shiro shrugged and tried to avoid the cop's glance as he thought that Keith would see everything Shiro had done once they exchanged glances here and now.

"Well, maybe."

Keith sighed and looked to the other two cops.

"Alright," he said then. "Since nobody is really hurt and there are no corpses around this time, luckily," he added. "We can't do anything for now."

They turned towards the door. But before they went out, Keith turned around and looked at Shiro.

"Please don't do anything silly," he said, it was more like a question, before following his colleagues towards the green grass.

As Shiro watched the cops go, he wished that it wouldn't be Keith who investigated in this case. But he wasn't sure if he would've hit on the cop at that time at the bar if they hadn't noticed each other before.


	18. Resemblance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is at home, trying to distract himself from work. It doesn't work so well though.

It smelled like curry.

The room, which served as bed and living room at once, was relatively small. There was a bed, a small table, a desk and the kitchen. Right next to the entrance was a bathroom, fully equipped with additional washing machine and bathtub.

Even though the window was a bit open, the rest of tonight's dinner was noticable. After preparing and eating the curry, Keith had done the essential dishes and was now resting on the bed. Kosmo laid, a giant sleeping bundle, huddled underneath the desk.

Keith had finished today's work and had planned to watch the new episode of a show which was airing weekly, but somehow he still didn't have any motivation to do so. Something kept his mind distracted and he would lie if he said that he wouldn't know what it was.

He sighed. While trying to think about something else, his mind wandered off.

So far, he had no plans for the next day off. He wondered what he could do..

Go to the bar again?

He bit his lips and thought about his usual method. Not that he went to the bar every free day but it happened once or twice a month. He would sit at the counter, order a beer, throw some glances into the growing crowd and maybe talk to someone who seemed to be compatible with him. Or rather with his body. But in most of the cases he sought out the proper ones who had a general good personality.

But after the last experience Keith had at the bar – the night he had met Shiro – something had changed in his expectations. He barely talked to any other guy he had met before. The conversation with the yakuza had been somewhat refreshing and much deeper than he would've ever imagined.

And the sex had been great as well.

Keith tilted his head and watched the black screen of the TV, waiting for his actions.

Somehow Keith felt like doing it with Shiro again. Of course, why wouldn't he. But it was rather the fact that he only wanted to do it with Shiro in… the future?

Keith frowned and as he realised what he just had thought, his face heated up.

Of course he wanted to do it with him. But _only_ him? On the other hand, the idea of having Shiro around and being able to sleep with him whenever they wanted wasn't so bad actually.

"No, no, no, not today," Keith mumbled to himself. He reached out and grabbed one of the magazines laying beside his bed. He looked at the title page and it took a couple of seconds before he realised that it was one of the gay magazines he had.

He stared at the muscled man on the front page, wearing nothing but shorts and a giant off showing smile. But there was nothing Keith had to loose, which is why he opened the magazine, flipping through it lazily.

The day after he had returned from the hotel had been strange. He had (and still does) felt the touch of Shiro's fingers everywhere. The grazing of the rough skin where the scars hadn't healed properly. His eyes when they turned darker and concentrated only on Keith. His tender gaze when Keith came. The cum filling the condom deeply burried inside of him.

Keith wriggled on his bed, pressing his ass into the soft mattress, wishing for more friction. He could easily slip a finger into his shorts and touch himself but he feared that it wouldn't be enough.

He had wished for a second round, morning sex or something like this. But they had went separate ways after taking a shower. They hadn't said much as they both knew very well that nothing was for sure at the moment. Especially with the ongoing investigations and their assigned roles.

But whenever he remembered the morning they had woken up in the hotel bed, Keith blushed. It wasn't because he regretted what they had done. It had an entirely different reason.

They had went to bed on each side of the wide hotel bed but had woken up cuddled closely together. It had been a long time where Keith had spent the night with someone or even cuddled. It was mostly Kosmo who jumped into the bed while he was asleep.

But now he had done it with Shiro, a yakuza who might have killed three men.

Keith browsed through the magazine and stopped once in a while when a detail reminded him of something Shiro had: a square chin, a scar somewhere on his arm, the length of his cock.

The heated memories returned bit by bit and the police officer sighed, deciding not to stop them anymore. And once he had flipped to a page which showed a man who resembled Shiro a _lot_ more, Keith grunted frustrated and gave finally in.

He flopped the magazine onto the bed and shoved one hand into his boxershorts. It didn't take long for his dick to react as he could grab and stroke it easily to get it into form. First, he directed his thoughts of this random brown haired guy in the magazine whose smile could be used for dental advertisment. But the further Keith got – having his second hand occupying his hole – the more he saw Shiro's careful glances and his soft grin.

Keith couldn't help himself but cursed when he reached out for the lube next to the bed. He slicked his fingers and thrusted them into his hole, making it once more pliant and accessible for himself. He gave it another try and focused on the magazine's guy, but everything he could thought of was the Blade's second in command.

And as he came, a soft _Shiro_ escaped his lips, filling his head with pictures of a groaning white haired man and his hands sticky with cum.


	19. A new Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police needs to think of another method to investigate.

"They wanted to kill him?" Lotor asked deadpan.

Keith nodded.

"Are you sure about that?"

"He said so himself."

"Do you believe him?" There was doubt in the eyes of the police chief.

Keith nodded once more. He truly believed Shiro.

"Why?"

Keith didn't answer right away. He frowned as he didn't know why the _Madoushi_ wanted to kill the second in command of the _Blade of Marmora_.

"I don't know, Sir. That's why we're investigating, right?"

Lotor chuckled. He leaned back in his seat in the wide office and looked up to Keith who stood in front of him.

"You're right, that's why we're doing all of this." He folded his arms in front of his body, his face distorted as the seemed to concentrate. "Any ideas how to proceed? What about Hunk?"

"He has the night shift. I'm with the other two today."

Lotor nodded. "Ideas?"

"We could observe them further but since you called us back the last time, it is a bit..." Keith didn't know how to proceed his sentence. He still felt angry about their chief calling them back when they could have saved a life. But he couldn't let his anger affect his work which is why he kept quiet.

Lotor squinted his eyes and examined his subordinate before slowly nodding his head one time. "I understand. So what else could we do from the distance?"

Keith thought about it. Of course they could use the public security cameras installed at parts of the city but he could bet that the yakuza groups knew about those locations. Apart from binoculars there was only one option to monitor someone in modern technical oriented times.

"How about a bug?"

Lotor's eyes got suddenly full of excitement. Keith couldn't tell whether he was just enthusiastic about this idea or if he had waited for Keith to mention this possibility.

"Yes!" He said and smiled broadly. "Yes, that's a good idea."

"The problem is: How can we put a bug on the _Madoushi_? They're hard to find in the city."

"I rather thought of putting it on the _Blades_ , the second in command should know a lot about this case, don't you think?"

Keith nodded. He had thought to first investigate the _Madoushi_ since… Yeah, why? Because he knew Shiro – in some parts especially well – at least a bit more and wouldn't deem him as a murderer? Of course it made sense to observe him or another Blade as well but somehow Keith had started with the other group, as he had witnessed that they had wanted to kill someone.

"We should epecially focus on Shirogane. He might know about things which are interesting for us," Lotor continued.

"Yes, it would be in any case good to have more intel than we have now," Keith agreed. "But what about the _Madoushi_ group? Another bug on them might give us some more details as well."

"We already have one of us going after them."

This was a surprise.

"Really? A bug?"

Lotor shook his head, his mimic more stern than before. "A person."

"Who is it?"

"It's a volunteer, if I may say it like that. They observe them for the time being."

Keith knew that asking further wouldn't lead anywhere. His chief could be stubborn at times. That's why he just nodded and accepted patiently if he at some point would get to know this certain person. Maybe one of the other two was an undercover spy in this case, only making arrangements with their chief?

"Can you do it?"

"What do you mean, Sir?"

"The bug. Can you place the bug on Shirogane?"

Keith hesitated but then agreed. "Yes, Sir. I'll handle this."

Better him than anyone else.


	20. Second Encounter at the Bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The usual bar; Keith waits for a certain yakuza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, another longer chapter (nearly 6k again). But.. Sheith chapters always get more attention.

The usual bar. The usual place at the counter.

Keith took a sip of his beer and sighed quietly. He threw a glance towards his coat he had put on the hook underneath the well used wood. He had placed the bug in a small box in the inner pocket, ready to take out and attach to someone anytime.

It was fairly simple, nothing Keith hadn't learned during his work and trainee time where he got to know the functioning and electronic side of those small devices. For now, he just had to press a small button and attach it to something the person to be investigated would have always close by. A hand bag or the pocket of a coat for example.

And after, there was really nothing else to do as to wait and listen to what would be received by the counterpart Keith had. Everything was fairly simple, the bug was there, ready to be set, the whole mission was planned through.

The only thing was that he hadn't had any opportunity yet to put the bug on.

After he had gotten the order from his chief, Keith had come three nights this week already and had waited for the yakuza to place the bug on. And maybe do something else, who knew.

But there was some reluctance in Keith.

If Shiro would have appeared in the bar at the first night he had tried to catch him, he wouldn't have put the bug on him. He felt bad of putting a bug on someone he had felt comfortable to be with, but Keith was a police officer and had to follow the orders given to him. Thus, there wasn't much he could do about it.

And besides, according to Lotor, there was someone investigating the _Madoushi_ as well. If he couldn't place a bug on the _Blade_ 's second in command, they wouldn't be able to get new intel. And maybe, Keith hoped so at least, Shiro wasn't at fault for anything related to the murder in the second harbour during typhoon season.

While Keith drank some more of his beer, he wondered who the other investigator could be. Non of his colleagues had told him but he also hadn't asked. Maybe Lotor wanted them to be not known to all of them. Similarly to the fact that nobody knew that Keith was waiting for the _Blade_ 's second in command to place a bug on him.

Keith felt guilty and a little bit embarrassed. He really didn't want to do this. He thought about the possibility to ask Shiro directly about those three men. What if Shiro would explain the whole situation and it would be clear that there was someone else responsible for the murder and they could just go to this bar, take a drink, and leave for another hotel night?

Maybe this was too good to become reality.

The slight noise of the doorbell let Keith turn his head – as he had done for any new visitor already – to watch whoever came down the stairs. As soon as he noticed that this time it was really Shiro in his black coat and tie, a smile filled his lips and some of his uneasiness vanished for a moment.

Before Keith could force himself to stop grinning like an idiot in love, he saw that Shiro responded the same way.

The tall yakuza came closer while opening his coat. He looked good in black and somehow, as they both smiled happily, something tickled Keith's stomach. He scratched it unconsciously while he observed Shiro approaching.

"Is it free?" He asked, pointing at the empty chair next to the officer.

Keith nodded, unable to say anything as his throat was completely dry. He drank another sip of beer.

Shiro smiled satisfied and sat down, letting his coat slide down his arms – a movement Keith admired as it toned his flexing muscles – to hang it on the hook below the counter next to his own.

The yakuza turned towards the bartender and ordered – with a side glance to Keith – his drink: "I think I will get the usual, whiskey on the rocks."

Keith blushed and barely noticed the bartender nodding. Before he came back to place the glass with the amber coloured liquid in front of the buff man, they were silent.

"What about you?" Shiro asked, his voice deep and quiet. "Would you take the usual as well?"

Keith smiled, now able to counter. "I think I take the one I had last time."

"And what was it?" The sly grin didn't disappear from Shiro's lips. 

Keith glanced down at his beer but both of them knew that it wasn't concerning anything to drink they were talking about. "The same I have in front of me now," Keith said, his eyes scooting back to rest on a grey pair of calm eyes. 

Shiro chuckled. "I understand." 

They paused while drinking something; Shiro to probably taste the wiskey and appreciate it; Keith for wetting his throat once more to be able to talk to the other man. 

He tried to calm himself down, saying that there was nothing to freak out about. He still had time and this winter night had just began. Although he wasn't sure if this was working time or not as he was to place a bug on someone he would spend the night with as well. 

Something in his mind wondered whether _Hyogoken_ would pay for his beer since he was kind of working. And the beer was necessary, right? 

"How is it going, Keith?" Shiro asked. 

"What do you mean?" 

"Your investigations. How are they?" Shiro lifted his glass in front of him but didn't drink, observing the police officer carefully. 

"Fairly okay… ish." Keith chuckled. "I guess we still need more information." 

"Ahhh, I see." Shiro sighed. "I know about this problem as well. There is never too less information, right?" 

Keith tilted his head. "Maybe," he mumbled, thinking about it. "But sometimes you don't want to know things since they could destroy something precious." 

"That's true. The truth is an evil snake." 

"Is that some word of wisdom?" 

"It's common knowledge, Keith." Shiro honestly laughed and it was a beautiful sound. 

Keith blushed. "Sorry." 

Shiro reached out and patted his shoulder. "No need to be. Keith." He smiled as he added his name. 

"What is it?" Keith asked. 

"Nothing. Just… I really like to say your name. In any possible way." Shiro frowned slightly, which made him even more atttractive. His grey eyes observed Keith until the police officer got embarassed. 

"I understand." Keith noticed with beating heart that the buff man's hand was still resting on his shoulder where it spread an evergrowing wave of warmth. 

They looked at each other's eyes and it was clear what was going to happen next. There was no way around it. 

As they left the bar, a halfway drank whiskey and the rest of the beer were still standing side by side on the counter. 

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
"Is this really okay?"

Keith frowned and looked up to Shiro as they fled from the cold weathered night into the hotel they had used the last time as well. 

"What do you mean?" He looked around but there was nothing conspicuous to see. There was the lobby, the usual vending machine functioning as a selch check-in counter for the rooms shining brightly in the empty hall, the stairs, and the elevator. "If you mean the act itself I'm pretty sure about that. I did it more than..." 

Shiro raised a hand to stop him. There was a sad smile on his lips but it vanished to only leave the happy part. Keith remembered their talk from last time that he shouldn't speak about other men while they were together. Thus, Keith stopped talking. 

He was kind of self-conscious about his accompanying jealous yakuza. 

"I mean," Shiro started explaining while Keith chose a room at the machine. "You are a cop and I am… not. I'm the one you should be investigating." 

"You ask that now?" Keith laughed.

Shiro shrugged. "You seemed to be okay with it the first time. But now I had time to think about it and I got a bit worried." 

Keith was surprised to hear that. Barely any of his so far one-night stands had known that he was a cop. There was no way around Shiro since they had met at a court, but it was the first time someone got worried about him. The reason was secondary. 

"I'm still fine with it. Besides, this is my free time and I can do whatever I want. If it means to be screwed by a yakuza, I'm totally in." It was the truth but to say it aloud was a different matter. Keith scratched the back of his head. 

"It's only you, I mean… you're kind of, uh…my… type." His voice got quieter and quieter with each word leaving his mouth. 

Shiro made big eyes, showing his clear and raw surprise. But then he smirked. "Then there is nothing more to say I guess." 

Keith just nods. He took the key from the machine and pointed to the elevator. 

"Let's go." 

They went to the third floor and entered the room. It looked the same as before which seemed to be fair for a hotel. They dropped their coats and boots at the entrance and as soon as there was less fabric between them, Shiro grabbed Keith by his neck to pull him into a rough kiss. 

Keith didn't mind to be engulfed into hot breath and tongue. He slid his fingers below Shiro's belt, pulled out his shirt and started to touch his belly and sculptured stomach. It sent a sparkling shudder through his spine when he felt Shiro's other hand start roaming over his body as well. 

They didn't stop kissing as they undressed each other, rather sloppy and hastily. Keith couldn't get enough of those lips which sealed his own again and again. He reached out to wrap his arms around Shiro's neck to keep him as close as possible. He just wanted this man all over him. 

His shirt was on the ground, their belts dropped next to it. Shiro gave him one last kiss before retracting, a sly smile on his wetted lips. He pressed the police officer softly towards the mattress so that Keith flopped onto it. He watched how the other man reached for his ankles and pulled his pants towards him and off. Now, Keith wore only his boxershorts which's front showed his growing erection. 

Shiro watched him, sliding his hot gaze slowly over Keith's stomach. And although they had seen each other in a lot more ways already and albeit the fact that Keith trained regularly as he was a cop indeed, this made him still nervous. 

"Like it?" Keith asked. 

Shiro raised an eyebrow and nodded vigurously. "I do," he said. He placed his knees left and right of Keith's thighs and leaned down so that his face hovered over Keith's. "I really do like… it." 

"Me too?" 

There was reluctance in his eyes and Keith understood. He just had asked out of the blue, without any thought behind it. And he himself hadn't really put much thought in any deeper connection. But now where he outspoke it, the answer made him suddenly terrified. 

Shiro's eyes watched Keith's lips and cheeks, before returning to his eyes. 

"I kind of do like you," he murmured. 

Keith opened his mouth but he had no idea of what to say. So he closed it again. 

Shiro chuckled. "Surprised?" He asked. 

Keith nodded and cleared his throat. "Ye-yeah, a bit. I haven't thought about it and..." 

"Me too." Shiro came closer and pressed a gentle kiss on Keith's lips. "But now I did, a little bit at least, and from the things I have gathered so far I can tell as much." 

Keith smiled. "That's a relief somehow." 

"How about you? You don't need to answer," Shiro added hastily. "We both know our positions we're in right now and everything is difficult." 

"Nothing is certain," Keith admitted. 

Shiro nodded slowly and was obviously taking this as the answer. 

"But nothing is impossible either," Keith added. 

It brought a glitter into the yakuza's eyes. "You mean it?," Shiro asked, his voice still calm but somewhat curiously. 

Keith nodded. "I do." 

They looked at each other. The conversation, which had been barely existent once entering the hotel, had become suddenly deep. 

"Now let's get this going," Keith demanded and pulled Shiro closer to kiss him once more. 

The yakuza was easily pleased by this and gave him another deep kiss. He intruded Keith's mouth, encircled his tongue and sucked on it. It made the police officer shudder; a pleasant tingle rising from his groin to his stomach and neck. His hands started to wander off, discovering things he hadn't touched so far. 

Keith felt the hot evergrowing length rubbing against his own between their bodies. He slid his hand inside of Shiro's shorts and touched the sensitive skin, pulled down the foreskin to graze his fingers teasingly over the bare head. 

Shiro's soft moan was blown into his ear. His hips were bucking up as the yakuza tried to get more relieving friction from Keith's hand. 

Keith pleased him and stroke his hard on thoroughly, giving his hand more strength to form a tighter grip. Shiro was halfy kissing the cop's neck and halfy moaning as his rocking hips made him feel good. Softly, Keith withdrew and let his other hand wander over Shiro's back. Strong muscles and heavy bones marked their paths below his skin, moving which each shift he'd do. 

And then Keith remembered something. 

"Turn around," he whispered in Shiro's ears. 

The yakuza, his heavy lidded eyes filled with arousal, looked at him perplexed. He frowned.

"Wasn't I supposed to do… you know? You? I don't mind being on the other side, but I would like to prepare for it at least. Although I never did it so far and..." 

Keith chuckled. "No. I mean yes." 

"Which one?" Shiro halfly grinned, but his arousal still was still visible on his face. 

"Same setting as last time, no need for you to prepare. I just want to have a look." Keith smiled softly. 

"At my ass?" The yakuza raised an eyebrow, his grin broader then before. 

This time Keith needed to laugh. "No, not there. Well, maybe there as well, now that you mention it. Just… sit and turn around." 

Shiro observed him closely, but then shrugged and did as he was told. 

While he sat up on the bed, Keith got into position as well, pulling his naked legs closer. And finally Shiro sat, his legs crossed, with his back towards Keith's front. 

Keith took a deep breath as he was stunned by the view. He reached out but paused just before he could touch the skin. 

"It's okay, go ahead," Shiro said. 

Keith hesitated for a second but then nodded. "I just want to take a proper look," he whispered. 

"I understand." 

"Are there many who want to do this?" 

Shiro tilted his head to the side. "I don't think so. If they aren't yakuza I would wear a shirt while doing it. The other were, well, like me." 

"I see." Keith's mind wandered around. There were many questions in his head and non of them he could ask now. They were too personal. 

But as he got the permission, he reached out further and touched Shiro's back. 

The lion was huge. 

It was painted with black ink into the skin of the yakuza and filled the whole back. The head was positioned on the left shoulder blade, the tail curled itself over the right hip. The pattern was carefully coloured, leaving strips across his ribs and spine. The lion had a firm body, muscular like Shiro. An embodiment maybe. His head turned around so that he faced Keith. His eyes were glowing a bit, his whiskers learly visible as the lion had the mouth opened, showing it's fangs. 

Keith wondered how the tattoo was moving over Shiro's back while the yakuza was fucking him. 

The first time they had slept with each other had been exciting. There hadn't been much time as they both had focused on other bodyparts, making the other feel good. Now, Keith wanted to see it. He wanted to touch this other side of Shiro. 

"It's beautiful," Keith mumbled. 

Shiro turned his head to look at him. "Realy?" He sounded as if he heard that many times already but never that honest. 

"Yes. It's a beautiful lion." Keith placed his hand flat on Shiro's spine. "Do the _Blades_ always have lions?" 

Shiro shook his head. "It's different for each of us. But most of them are predators as lions, eagles, and such." 

"I see." Keith let his resting hand glide down over the warm skin. He felt some ridges and edges here and there and stopped. Those weren't bones, nor muscles. He leaned a bit closer to take a proper look in the dim light.

There were scars. Many of them. 

Some were shallow and nearly invisible. Others were deep, cut into the flesh and had taken their time to heal properly. Some were short, as from a cut of a knife or a sharp object. Some must result from sever fights or maybe accidents. Sometimes, his fingercups stroke over small, round scars, probably resulting from a gunshot. 

But the amount wasn't normal. As Keith slid his palm softly above the ridged skin, it was like a chaotic shogi board. Every line was out of sync with the others, scattered across shoulder blades, spine and ribcage. 

Keith frowned. Shiro must've had a rough past already. He was a yakuza, yes, but not all of them had scars as if this was totally normal. There were other groups who didn't get involve in fights or gang wars either. Many led a rather normal life, some pursued the traditions and culture. 

But this wasn't yet the time to ask about Shiro's past. Not yet. Maybe never. Keith wasn't so sure anymore. 

"Should I get the lube?" Shiro tried to look at Keith. "You can keep touching my back further, of course. It's just that my dick kind of looses interest." 

Keith snorted. He still giggled while trying to give an answer. 

"Ye-yeah, lube is fine."

Maybe Keith just imagined it but the act itself was different this time. They did it two times in total, the first was the total oppostite to the second time. 

Shiro prepared Keith a whole lot more than the very first time and when he was done, Keith had already come, his asshole left oversensitive and his lungs out of breath. Yet he couldn't wait for the yakuza to line up with him and press his hot swollen dick inside of him. 

He wanted it. 

He needed it. 

The position was the same as before. Keith had wanted to change that but was too exhausted to have a say. Shiro was hovering above him, his fingers drew little circles on Keith's stomach while he pressed inside. As if he wanted to make him feel at ease or to endure the familiar stretch. 

And once fully seated inside, Shiro's thrust were kept shallow. One hand kept Keith's right leg in the air, the other still rested on his stomach. Once in a while it reached upwards to tease his nipples or touch Keith's hand. And as they came, Keith held on tight to Shiro's fingers. 

While Shiro disposed of the condom, Keith thoughts were drenched in a mixture of pure bliss and wonder. This time had felt different. As if… As if they were… 

Yeah, as if this would be their honeymoon. Their wedding night or something of this sort. Shiro had been careful, stretching him, caressing him, held his hand, touched him softly. 

Keith couldn't deny that he liked it. 

The second time they fucked was different. Shiro asked him in a low voice if he was alright with to be taken from the backside and Keith nodded, smiling. 

Keith shuffled his way around until his ass was in the air and a pillow between his chest and the mattress. 

Shiro was still tender, but as he pressed inside, his pace got fast rather soon. He fucked Keith into the mattress like crazy, as if this would be the last chance to ever do this together. And maybe it really was, non of them knew for sure. 

Keith liked this way as well. He must admit – though, he wasn't really surprised about it – that he had never felt so good with any of the one-night stands he had before. He was so full and satisfied that he laid there in pure bliss (ass still utterly naked and exposed to the air) until Shiro came out of the shower. 

"You okay?" 

Keith turned his head and saw the worried look on Shiro's face. 

"Nhnn," he made, unable to form words yet. 

"Is that a yes? I can call the room service." 

"Is'is a yes, Shi'wo." Keith sighed but smiled as he turned his head a bit more so that his words weren't blurred into the fabric. "And what could the room service possibly do? I doubt that there is any actually." 

"Me too." Shiro chuckled. Then he shrugged. "I don't know, bring some ice or something?" 

"Hmm, ice cream would be nice." Keith saw that Shiro's eyes beamed up. As if he waited for something he could do. "Just kidding," he added. 

Shiro nodded slowly. He was about to ask another question but Keith already saw it coming. 

"I'm okay, really. I liked it as well. I told you the very first time that I'm not a hundred percent vanilla type." 

Shiro hummed. "I remember that. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done that. Or well… I would've asked of course." 

Keith wanted to ask what had made the yakuza decide to chose the second position. But he didn't want to dig deeper in case he found something he couldn't deal with yet. 

"You should get into the shower as well. You're… pretty sticky." 

Keith wanted to look down at himself but couldn't muster. He hummed approvingly but didn't move. 

"Keith." 

"Yeah, I know. In a minute." 

Shiro laughed quietly, a fond look in his eyes as he looked at Keith. "I'll stay awake so if you fall asleep in the shower, I can save you from drowning." 

"I appreciate it," Keith said and really meant it. 

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


A chilly breeze blew through the open window into the room. The night was still relatively early which is why neither of them slept yet. 

Shiro had kept his word and had been still awake when Keith had come back, a towel wrapped around his hips while drying his long wet hair. The yakuza was sitting, back against the board, on the bed and looked out of the window. The black tail of his lion tattoo was visible. 

Now, the yakuza smoked a cigarette, which dust flew out of the window. 

Keith changed into his boxershorts and followed Shiro's example. First, he sat next to him and watched the stars of the night's sky. But as he felt the chilly air crawling above his skin, he scooted closer and leaned his head against Shiro's right shoulder. 

It was already December but Keith didn't mind the open window. Shiro was warm enough to keep them both heated. And Keith still felt hot after all the things they had done and the shower. His ass was tingling but it was a rather pleasant feeling, remembering the shape and length of Shiro's grown dick as it had moved inside of him. The places where Shiro had touched still burnt, his lips were prickling. 

"Thanks," Keith mumbled as he pressed his face closer to Shiro's arm. 

"Hm?" 

"For staying awake." 

Shiro chuckled quietly. He reached out and patted Keith's head. "I wasn't tired. Kept thinking about you." 

"Oh?" 

"Somehow, I want to know so many things about you." Shiro stopped and Keith saw a wistful smile on his lips as his eyes kept observing the stars. "Not sure if I can." 

Keith frowned. "I think...," he started, but he was unsure how to continue. He let his open sentence run into nowhere. 

"Yeah," Shiro said. He took a drag from the cigarette and blew the smoke slowly into the air where it vanished nearly instantly. 

Keith watched the stars further while stroking over Shiro's right arm. He felt a ridge and looked down to see another scar. It wasn't just a scar. It looked like somebody had ripped off his arm and badly sewed it back on. The ridge Keith had touched at first was only the beginning as it let to a bulge of scars closing around the middle of Shiro's upper arm. 

"What happened?" Keith asked, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to know about this. 

Shiro looked down and his eyes rested a while on this old wound before tilting his head towards the window once more. 

"Sendak," he said, quietly. 

Keith frowned. "Sendak? Isn't he a member of the _Madoushi_?" 

Shiro's eyes got big and he raised his eyebrows as he turned around again to look Keith in the eyes. 

"You really are a cop, huh?" 

Keith shrugged. "I do a proper job, that's all." 

The yakuza chuckled. But then his mimic got serious once more. He took another drag from his cigarette.

"It was a couple of years ago, I think I was twenty back then, maybe nineteen." His eyes got a glint of sad melancholy. "We had a fight. Not all of the _Madoushi_ were part of it and not all of us _Blades_ as well."

He made a small pause before continuing.

"It was about something stupid. Something about money. And somehow things were twisted, we didn't trust each other in the beginning. Not as we did a while after. We had to get to know each other. Sendak became second in command that time, he is now third by the way. But he was young and full of honor and thirst for something nobody knew of. He must've had a backstory but I don't know the details."

Shiro let out a small sigh before he continued.

"He just… wanted to fight with us, seeking rage. And as I was the _Blade_ 's second in command, I was his aim. And I was involved in this whole mess. I must say that I forgot bits and pieces of it. But maybe I just suppressed it. And now here we are."

The yakuza turned his arm a bit while observing the scars running over and deep into his skin. Keith saw that they must've been severaly and deep. Maybe too deep afterall.

They exchanged looks and Shiro nodded, a broken laugh escaped his throat. "You're right, Keith," he said. "I nearly lost my arm back then. You can guess that we're not on quite good terms now, do you?"

Keith nodded, unable to say anything. Somehow everything was explained and Keith felt that Shiro didn't want to say anything to this matter anymore.

"Keith?" Shiro asked after a while. It was not really a question but the police officer looked at him.

"Keith," he said once more as if the tried to taste the name on his tongue. "I was wondering..."

"Hm?"

"Your name is… English."

"Yeah."

"Your family name… is Japanese."

Keith nodded.

"Why?"

Keith laughed. Shiro looked at him, confusion in his eyes but amusement on his lips.

"There isn't much of a backstory I think." Keith shrugged. He pressed his head back against Shiro's arm and stroke it, the soft skin and his scars.

"My father," he added quietly as he felt Shiro's gaze still resting on him. "My father was American."

Shiro didn't say anything at first. It seemed that he hesitated. " _Was_?" He asked quietly, carefully.

Keith swallowed and nodded. "Yeah… _was_."

And Shiro didn't ask further. Instead, he reached out and patted Keith's head once more, just as he had done before.

Keith listened to Shiro's soft breathing as he in- and exhaled the cigarette's smoke while viewing the stars, mostly veiled by the night's clouds. It seemed that the last bits of the heavy clouds which had hung above Kobe were finally gone. Still, there was a storm raging somewhere above their heads, even though they couldn't hear or see it, it was still there.

"Why did you say your name so easily when Kou asked for it?"

Keith glanced upwards to see Shiro's face but the yakuza had his eyes still directed onto the nearby roofs outside of the window.

"Who?" Keith asked, too confused to bother to think about the logic behind Shiro's words.

Shiro looked down at him and blinked a couple of times, confusion inside his grey eyes.

"Oh," he then said flatly. "Ah, sorry. You don't know his name. Kou is one of our _Blades_. In the garage when those _Madoushi_ … Uhm.."

"When they wanted to kill you?" Keith suggested.

"Yeah."

Keith could hear him gritting his teeth.

"Anyway, when we were in this garage and you were called because the residents heard a gun shot and … What?" He asked since Keith started to chuckle.

Keith shrugged. "Nothing," he said and waived a hand. "You just said it so casual, as if you hear a gunshot everyday."

Shiro shrugged. "Well, nearly. We also train you know."

Keith got silent again and nodded. "Yeah. Please, continue."

"Ah yeah. One of us, Kou, he asked you for your name and you just said it. I'm still sorry since he was really impolite towards you."

"To be honest, I had worse experiences. This was nothing."

Shiro frowned and Keith reaised an eyebrow, askingly.

"Sorry about that."

"As I said, it's fine." Keith tried to shrug it off but Shiro insisted. "Fine," the police officer conceded.

Shiro seemed to be amused but satisfied as well.

"You said your name," he stated again. "It was strange since I didn't know your name at first. Just when we… were in the hotel last time."

"Well, you didn't ask, you know?" Keith had wanted to say this casually but as he looked up to steal a glance of Shiro, he saw the yakuza looking at him dumbfoundedly.

"True, huh?" Shiro snickered and scratched his forehead with the hand with which he held the cigarette.

"Did it make you jealous?" Keith asked since he honestly wanted to know. A jealous mafiosi.

Shiro shrugged. "What if?"

Too surprised to say anything at first, Keith just stared at him as he continued smoking as if they had just talked about the weather.

"Shiro, you need to tell me if it upsets you," Keith finally managed as he found his voice back.

Shiro raised an eyebrow, exhaled a soft hunch of smoke which was ripped apart by the early winter air, and smiled. "It did," he said, his voice rough but calm.

Keith sighed. "I'm sorry."

"You too?"

"Yes, me too. Alright." He made a fist and wanted to look determined. "I won't tell my name so easily anymore."

Shiro tilted his head, his eyes were in awe. "Really?" He sounded way different than before, surprised and happy. As he would be a kid who was promised a trip to an amusement park.

Keith smiled as he saw this reaction, reliefed that they hadn't really fought over this. He was kind of happy over Shiro's jealousy, even though it was kind of stupid. They were no couple, they weren't in love with each other. They were a yakuza and a cop whose paths were somewhat intertwined. Yet, here they were, laying on a hotel bed on which they had fucked two times for the night.

"Yes," he said quietly and stroke over Shiro's arm. "I won't."

Shiro hummed satified and continued smoking. As the cigarette came to an end, he stubbed it out in the nearby ashtray on the nightstand.

Keith let his thoughts run wild. He felt relaxed and warm, resting beside a muscled arm and thigh he could press his own leg against. He felt comfortable to be here, but there was one bugging thing in his mind.

He was still a cop. He was still investigating those murder. He still had a task which somehow mixed with his personal life.

"What are you looking for, Keith?"

Keith's heart made a throb and he thought that his intention – part of it at least – had been exposed.

"Hm?" He tried to sound casually.

"I mean in the future, something like this." Shiro pointed towards both of their bodies. "Do you want the one love so many people seek? Or are you satisfied with those one-night stands you find at a bar?"

The painful heartbeat had calmed down but the answer was still as dificult. Keith had thought about this before, but somehow he still wasn't so sure about what would happen to the rest of his life.

"Maybe," he finally said.

"Maybe what?" Shiro chuckled.

Keith frowned. "If I find the one, who knows what would happen? If this one person would get to know me very well, if they love me, if they can keep up with me."

Shiro focused his glance on the cop.

"Did you try?" The yakuza asked. "Did you have a boyfriend or something more… stable? Did you always prefer this way? Going to a bar, looking for someone suitable and repeating this all over?"

Keith frowned. "It's hard to find someone. My work is sometimes really busy and the boyfriend I had ran away soon after he experienced the first emergency case where I was called out at an ungodly hour."

"So you _do_ want actually a sort of relationship?"

"I guess." Keith smiled and threw a glance towards the glittering eyes which kept observing him through their conversation. "But I still have so much time to think about this, right?" He made a small pause. "How about you?" He didn't want to refrain Shiro from asking, he was curious as well.

"Hmmm," Shiro hummed. He rested his head back against the board and squinted his eyes as he kept thinking. "I guess it would be nice someday. To have someone you're waiting for or they are waiting for you. Someone reliable who would go to a certain extend for the other person." He tilted his head. "But… our jobs are kinda similar, right? Somewhat unregular and there might be dangerous situations awaiting us. Sometimes, guilt would come over us and eat us alive."

They chuckled in unison about this.

"Your're right, it's difficult." Keith pressed his face against Shiro's arm one more. Suddenly, he felt sleepy. Their conversation had touched heavy topics.

"Will you stay the night with me," he asked.

"Sure, Mr. Police Officer."

"Oh please, call me Keith."

Shiro laughed. "Alright, Keith."

They settled into the pillows and blankets and Keith hadn't expected the yakuza to be so straightforward, but as he laid on his back, a warm big hand wrapped aorund his stomach. He hesitated but a soft smile ran over his lips and he reached out to touch Shiro's hand and placed his head into the crook between neck and shoulder.

"Night, Shiro."

"Good night, Keith."


	21. Hotel's Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wakes up, slowly remembering the task he got.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bear with the feeling of treachery a little bit longer. I swear, this won't end in a duel or something (well, at least not between them). Shiro is tough.

Soft vibrations from underneath his pillow made Keith groan. He searched for the phone while his mind woke up slowly.

Why had he set an alarm? He had the afternoon shift today as it was Wednesday.

Keith groaned annoyed but finally found his phone he had stuffed under his pillow in the late night's light of the stars, switching the alarm off.

Satified with the sudden silence, he laid on his side and tried to focus on single things in front of him. There wasn't much, a chair, a nightstand's lamp, the white door, another leading to the bathroom, and a lot of clothes gathered around.

Keith knew that there was a floor leading to his bathroom, it wasn't connected like this setup he saw in the early morning. Moreover, he wondered why he had set the alarm as a vibrational one.

He took a deep breath and tried to remember the things he knew now.

He didn't have a hangover, which was good to begin with.

He was laying in a comfortable bed, much more comfortable than his own to be honest.

The bathroom wasn't connected by a floor.

And there were more clothes around as one single man could have worn for an everning.

Keith frowned. And sudden realisation hit him that a) he wasn't alone in this bed, and b) he remembered why he had only put a vibration as an alarm an not his usual X-Files theme he loved since he was a child.

He turned around and saw Shiro's sleeping silhouette, halfy burried underneath the blanket they had shared. His warm hand was still resting on Keith's stomach and the police officer wondered why he hadn't noticed this sooner. Maybe because it felt too comfortable.

Everything was warm and soft under the blanket and he really didn't want to leave.

But he had to.

He slowly sat up, not wanting to wake up the yakuza. His face looked much less thoughtful than during the hours awake. It's was far more relaxed. His shoulders, ridged by scars of his past life, were heaving as he breathed in and out in a slow but steady pace. The soft early morning's sun hit through the curtains and replaced the cold but soothing moonlight from the past night.

Keith observed Shiro for a minute or two. A soft smile was on the yakuza's lips and Keith reached out but stopped his hand just before he could touch the pliant looking lips.

He needed to do something and if he couldn't do it now, he never would.

As carefully as he could, he slid from underneath the blankets into the cold morning's air and grabbed hit pants and shirt from the night before. As he dressed himself as quietly as possible, he watched Shiro's face. It didn't move a millimeter which was a great relief. Keith wanted to leave before Shiro woke up. Otherwise, he would want to go back in this bed and just sleep in the day, cuddle a bit and maybe fuck another round.

He finished dressing and glanced towards the bathroom's door. He really needed to pee but couldn't risk to be discovered when he would flush.

Keith shook his head. Instead, he went over to his coat and put it on. Then, he slid a hand in the pocket in the inside and fetched the small box he had kept there. He opened it and took out the bug.

Keith hesitated and sighed quietly for himself as he stared a long time down at this electronic piece of wonder for the police to use. He didn't want to. He really didn't want to spy on Shiro.

But it was his order.

He sighed and straightened himself up, before he turned towards the black coat Shiro had put on the hooks beside the door. With trembling but steady fingers which knew what to do, he switched the bug on and tried to find a good spot to attach it. While searching through the coat, he found a spectacle case in one of the inner pockets.

Keith frowned. Shiro wore glasses?

He didn't remember him putting out contact lenses before going to bed after they had done it. So maybe those glasses were for reading? He chuckled internally to imagine Shiro being such an old timer already, heaving reading glasses and taking them everywhere he went to read the newspapers while waiting for a train or something.

Now, where he thought about glasses and especially Shiro wearing those glasses, he really wanted to see him wearing them.

_Alright, focus Kogane!_

He glanced back towards the bed and smiled sadly. _Sorry_ , his lips formed.

While nestling around, he found a good spot underneath the revers. Since there was a small needle attached to the bug, Keith could fix it to the fabric.

Keith stared a solid minute on the coat, his mind blank. It was done.

Once he let out a deep sigh, he returned his head and watched Shiro once more. He was still asleep but he had moved a bit so that the blanket slid off his back. The inked lion seemed to stare at Keith and the cop couldn't deny those feelings of dull anger.

He took a piece of paper and scribbled a little note that he had to go early and left it on the nightstand under the lamp. Shiro would find it.

Keith slid in his shoes and put his hand of the doorknob and before he could decide to do anything else, he went out and pulled the door close behind him.

While he walked towards the elevator, he wondered if there would be another chance to meet again.


	22. Voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith listens, finding a truth.

Most of the time there was noise.

The bug moved over the coat's fabric or there was the background sounds of the traffic or other people passing. But the quality of the voice was amazingly good so that Keith, Hunk, the two other officers Ken and Watanabe, and Lotor could listen to it easily.

They had put the receiver in their office. It was a small box which looked like a little radio and could be connected to a computer as well to record whatever would be transmitted. They took turns of listening to it but whenever Keith had to hand over the receiver to someone else, he didn't want to let go of it.

Of course he did, nobody else knew what kind of relationship he had developed with this certain yakuza – if he coud actually call this a sort of relationship – but he still felt reluctant about it.

As it turned out, most of the things they listened to were rather normal.

Shiro called a taxi. He got some food, talked to random people, trained, took a walk, listened to music, made a phone call concerning the management of paying rent, electricity and other expenses from his group. Those weren't things he would get arrested for.

Not everything could be _seen_ via the bug.

For once they weren't sure what the yakuza did during the night since he didn't sleep with his coat on. And the officers didn't find out where the headquarter of the _Blades_ was. They didn't intend to gather this intel using the bug, but it would've been good to have more information at hand than they actually had; which wasn't that much apparently.

The four officers – Lotor was the chief of _Hyogoken_ and therefore not taken into account – took turn even during the night-time. It was mostly the one who had night shift as well but during the nights non of them was available, somebody had to take the receiver and listen to everything happening until Shiro fell asleep.

Thus, Keith volunteered. It didn't seem to surprise anyone and he was afraid that his secret had been – however it would be possible – spilled. Not to mention that some of the static noises made Kosmo growl angrily. He often hurried under his many blankets to cover his big fluffy ears.

But Hunk mentioned that everybody thought that Keith must felt responsible since he was in charge of the investigation. It made Keith feel at ease again and his heart throbbed further in it's kind of regular pace it had developed after he had met Shiro for the very first time at the bar.

In the end – after working hours – Keith would take the receiver and listen to it while driving home, while going to the supermarket where he would wear earphones, and in the evening when he was in bed and waited for Shiro to do the same.

It was kind of ridiculous.

Keith couldn't get enough of his voice. It was dark and soothing and spread so much calmness that he nearly fell asleep while Shiro was talking to one Blade called Regris. This Blade didn't seem to be one of the big talkers which is why Keith was happy to hear Shiro most of the time.

While he laid in his bed, all lights off – his dog somewhere snorring in his own nest – he had the receiver in his hand, his head placed on his palm of the other hand, eyes closed. Keith remembered his voice in it's different nuances very clearly already. There were his strict command voice or his calm voice when he was discussing urgent matters or schedules. But there were also other sounds Keith remembered very clearly, as his grunting, groaning, moaning, when he whispered his name with a soft and warm tone, when he sighed satisfied after he had come.

It took some effort to not just slid a hand into his boxershorts and jerk himself off while listening to a yakuza who wouldn't be able to notice it. He still had some self restrain.

When things – something related to some finances of their group Keith didn't deem important – got calmer and Shiro went to bed, it got silent. There was just the faint sound of rustling clothes and a sigh before there was only faint breathing.

Keith closed his eyes and fell asleep soon after.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


The traffic was chaotic as usual but it soon calmed down once Keith approached the station close to _Hyogoken_. The receiver was placed on the co-driver's seat and Keith hummed softly while listening to Shiro, trying to ignore Kosmo's huffs in the backside.

The yakuza seemed to be in a car as well, driving to an unknown destination.

"Are you alright, Waka?" The voice, Keith remembered him as Regris', asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." Shiro yawned hearable and his joints snapped.

Regris chuckled and it seemed a bit distant due to the bug's side effects but it was still relatively clear. Keith was amazed about this work.

"About the intel we got two weeks ago," Regris started.

Keith frowned. This must be something new since he had put the bug on Shiro just nine days ago.

"Yeah?" He heard Shiro asking.

"It can't be true, just as Kolivan had suspected. The _Madoushi_ wanted to trick us and cut us off of the deal. Now they are after you, not all of us. They deem you responsible."

"You're right." Shiro hummed. He indeed sounded really tired. "Maybe we should be the first to react. If we could somehow eliminate this situation but the _Madoushi_..." He let his sentence run into nothingness.

"Yes," Regris said determined. "They want to kill you. We should do something about this."

 _This must be about the time in the garage_ , Keith thought. The _M_ _adoushi_ wanted to kill Shiro because they ought him to be responsible for the death of their members. But did this mean that the _Blades_ killed the three men?

"Maybe this was a mistake after all. We shouldn't have met them at the _Wind Graveyard_."

Regris hummed his approval.

 _Wind Graveyard_? Were they talking about the container harbour? Keith concentrated on the voices coming out from the small box.

"Do you think I shouldn't have done it?"

"What?" Regris asked.

There was a small pause and Keith waited patiently, his nerves were fluttering. Luckily the traffic light was still red.

"Kill them," Shiro said as if he had noticed dirt on his shoes.

Keith grabbed the wheel tightly and stared down at the receiver. This couldn't be true. This wasn't the Shiro who he had come to know. Kill? He had killed someone?

The light turned green and a honk made Keith realise that he was still in the usual morning traffic. He hurried to get his car moving.

"Do you want to kill the _Madoushi_ because we killed some of them?" Regris asked.

"They also killed two of us," Shiro added.

"So?"

Shiro went silent.

"That could result into a war between the _Blades_ and the _Ma_ _do_ _ushi_ , right? We shouldn't risk it."

Regris had said what Keith had been thinking. His brain tried to find a solution, but maybe he just didn't want to believe what he had listened to. Shiro couldn't be a murder. No. _Never_.

"True," Shiro said, his voice quieter than before. "But not if we didn't discuss it properly. After having them killed, everything seemed wrong. This is not the usual way to deal with this in our organisation nowadays."

"So what is your next plan, Waka?"

Keith had arrived at the parking place of the _Hyogoken_ police station and waited in his seat to hear the rest of the conversation. Hepiped down and waited nervously.

The pause was unbearable.

"We need to take measures without taking the police into this. This is a thing between our groups."

Keith bit his lip. He felt uneasy. He needed to help, he wanted to help since that was why he had taken this job. But he also wanted to… yeah, what exactly? Have Shiro safe? What kind of reason would that be for a police officer who should be interested in the greater good?

"We will ask them to meet up and discuss the matter. We will put our cards on the table and ask them to do the same. And then we will figure out how to proceed without the need to kill anyone as it happened in the hospital." His voice was bitter and there was still some pain inside of it. The two who had died must've meant a lot to the second in command.

Keith hurried to get a notepad and pencil to write down the suggested time, date and place Shiro mentioned as the conversation continued.

Keith wanted to be there as well. But first, he needed to ask his chief.


	23. Disaster Prevention Order

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith informs his chief about the latest news, resulting in an order he averses to.

As soon as Keith was inside the building, Kosmo jumping happily behind him, he hurried to his desk and threw his bento box and coat on his chair.

"Hey Keith, good mor-"

Keith ignored Hunk's greeting and went further towards Lotor's office. He knocked and opened as soon as he was allowed into.

"Kogane! What's up?" Lotor frowned. He put down the telephone receiver and directed his attention to his subordinate.

"The Blades," the police officer mentioned to say. He held up the small box with which he had listened to Shiro's and Regris' voices just a minute ago.

Lotor straightened himself on his seat. The atmosphere suddenly changed as his face turned serious and there was a hunch that he knew something important had happend.

In short sentences, Keith explained what he had heard through the receiver. He noticed that Hunk and one of the other two officers they investigated with had followed him.

"So they murdered those men," Lotor mumbled to himself. He stood up and walked around, his temple showing graves of passing thoughts. When he passed Keith, he stated again the fact they had now. "The _Blades_ murdered the _Madoushi_ at the harbour."

"Yes, Sir, it seems like it." To speak it aloud still tasted bitter and Keith curled his lips.

Lotor walked around, stood in front of the window and walked back to the board where they had gathered some intel. His open white hair fell softly from his shoulder as he bowed down to look at a paper with notes.

"What should we do, Sir?" Hunk asked. "According to our law system, we need to go there and arrest him. After, we would start to investigate having this lead of information. It may result into an official hearing at the court."

Keith knew that this was the right way to do, but something felt off.

One point was that their chief didn't seem to agree. Further, Keith's guts told him that it would be difficult to get Shiro arrested since he barely was seen by anyone at all. Hell, nobody had a good picture of him before the _Blades_ got involved into this case and had to reveal themselves at the court.

And Keith couldn't believe it. It had to be different. Shiro was no brutal man to go and kill everybody in the way just because they got some wrong intel. Just because he was about to get murdered for something neither of them seemed to understand.

But was it like this?

Keith bit his lip. There wasn't much he knew about Shiro except… other stuff. But he wasn't sure about the structure in their group. The _Blades_ were his family. Would he go so far as to kill three men to protect them?

"There might be more happening if we don't react fast," Lotor finally said. He straighened himself once more and turned towards the three officers. "Kogane, you're the head in this investigation. I need you to do this for me. The second in command of the _Blades_ seems to be a dangerous man. He killed three members of the _Mad_ _o_ _ushi_ for insignificant reasons. Another man was killed during an attack. Someone was wounded during the last encounter we had with them. What else might come if we don't do anything to prevent it?"

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared with a grim look at Keith.

"Kogane, herewidth I authorise you to eliminate the suspect."

Keith blinked. It took a while before he realised what his chief had just said.

"Si-Sir?" This couldn't be real.

"As I said, eliminate the suspect."

"I should ki-kill… Shiro..gane?" He barely got the full name but nobody seemed to notice.

"Yes." The answer was clear. Lotor's face didn't change.

"Why?"

"I just explained it. We don't know what else might happen if we let the yakua run loose in this city. He killed three men. He did certainly more. Shirogane is a dangerous man who needs to be shut down before he can do more damage to the people around him."

"But we don't know for sure if..." Keith tried to defend the reasoning.

"This is an order. Kogane." Lotor spoke with force this time.

"But there is no way that he is a brutal murderer! If he did it, there must be a reason behind and we need to..."

"An _order_!" Lotor's frown got more stern, an angry glance appeared on his face.

Hunk let out a tiny shriek which he tried to cover with a dry cough.

But Keith hadn't given up yet. He didn't want to accept the license to kill he just got from his chief who seemed to be irritated as well.

Something was off, Keith felt that. Either with the whole case or something – someone – in specific. Lotor's short-circuited reaction and command didn't help much. Keith wouldn't let it get that far.

"We should ask him whether.." He started anew.

"How?" Lotor stepped towards him and he looked furiously so that Keith took unconsciously a step backwards. "How could we ask him if we don't know his whereabouts? Do you perhaps know him better than we do?"

Silence.

Keith felt everybody in the small room staring at him. There was of course no way he could tell about those occasions where the yakuza and he had met. There was definitly no way.

He slowly shook his head.

"No… Sir."

"See? Then it's settled. Go to the place they talked about. You noted it, right? Kill Shirogane before he can do more damage." Lotor walked towards his chair and turned around once more when he reached it. "Any complaints?"

Keith glanced towards Hunk and the other officer. Both seemed a bit terrified as well due to Lotor's sudden intention. But their chief had a point. Too many had died so far.

But still… Keith wouldn't just aim the gun and shoot him. He would check out the situation before. Maybe there was a way to talk to Shiro before anything else could happen or worse, before he got killed by anyone else but Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And no, he won't kill him. (Of course not, who do you think I am.)


	24. Western Warehouses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith drives to the given location... what will he find?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will I let this become a bit cheesy? Yes, yes, I may.

The address belonged to a location in the outer area of Kobe.

Keith took the civil car they used for undercover missions. He still wore his uniform and moreover a coat above it. He wasn't sure how many yakuza would be at and around this place to observe any other movements. And an obvious cop was not a good one in this case. Besides, it was still winter.

Hunk had demanded to come with him, but after Keith had refused, he'd wanted his friend to take at least Kosmo with him. The dog was giant enough to protect his owner no matter what.

But Keith hadn't done so. He needed to see Shiro on his own and as he knew Kosmo, this wouldn't have been a quiet or calm investigation. He had parts of a wild wolf in him and sometimes – despite his training – it still showed.

When Keith left the highway and drove a couple of streets to the west, the area got more and more isolated. He wondered why the yakuza had a weakness for such spots. Of course those were best since there were rearely any people around. But Shiro had mentioned that they just wanted to meet and discuss the matter. No need to get violantly loud.

The address belonged to a big area of warehouses which had been used at least 50 years ago. Keith parked the car at the beginning of the abandoned field behind some wild looking bushes and trees and hoped that it wouldn't attract too much attention. He got out, locked the car and took a look around.

The warehouses seemed abandoned, the windows – if existing – were broken, the walls painted with graffiti, the roofs overgrown with moss and fern which moved in the slight breeze running through the air coming from the distant mountains. The ground was made of rectangular plates of grey concrete where single green plants and occasionally small flowers grew.

This place seemed lost in it's own way but had a haunting charm.

Keith felt for the gun he had hidden underneath his coat and was somehow relieved when he touched the handle. He made sure that there was no one in sight before he passed through the long gone gate and walked towards the first warehouse to look out for any hints of present yakuza.

Once he had looked inside through the broken frontdoor, he saw that the giant hall was empty. He went on checking those houses by passing through the passage way inbetween them. There were around ten houses and they were long, at least 150 meters each. The area was surrounded by a fence which's best days were long over.

In some of the storage rooms Keith found old tools, rusty machines, and broken pieces of furniture the workers had once used. Nowadays, those fabrics and crafts were done at the container harbour using much bigger machines and less human worker.

Keith searched in every small passage and inside the small adjoining building he passed, but he didn't spot anyone.

There were no cars, no _Blades_ , no _Madoushi_ , and no Shiro. Had this been a trap?

Each corner Keith was about to go around he first checked carefully before he exposed his full body. But with each new corridor he entered, he still didn't see anyone. Not even a homeless. They were all in better parts of Kobe than this one.

Keith finished checking a warehouse and glanced around the corner of the shorter side to the next one, when he saw the flapping of a familar black coat.

_Shiro?_

He hurried to the next side where the fabric had disappeared. His own coat flew off his shoulders as he did so, tumbling soft to the cold ground. Once he arrived the long alley between the houses, there was no one.

Keith stood there, irritated and annoyed, before walking further inside. He carefully checked the dusty windows of the warehouses of both sides for any movements. The alley was somewhat dark, shadows grew from unseen formations and were thrown into Keith's way. With the sunlight hidden behind the clouds, he didn't really have any help at all.

He stopped and sighed out loud.

Suddenly, Keith felt a presence behind him and he wanted to turn around but before he could do so, a strong hand wrapped around his shoulders and pressed him to a familar body frame.

"I heard you, you know?" Shiro said softly, accompanied with a soft chuckle.

"Shiro," Keith sighed. He felt his heart sank with relief. He wasn't able to find anyone, but at least Shiro had found him. But now what?

"Keith? May I ask what you're doing here?" It sounded kind of ironic, as if Shiro knew what the cop had been up to anyway.

"Where are the others? Are you early? You were supposed to meet, right?"

"And you know that because you put a bug on me?" The yakuza's voice got darker and he sounded way more serious than before.

Keith's face went pale and his so far relieved heart started jumping all of a sudden, letting his blood run faster through his veins. He was used to being in stressful situation, but this was Shiro. This was different.

"Ah th-that's… Shi-Shiro, I… Yes." Keith's shoulder slumped. He'd been found out. How? Why?

"But Shiro, I.."

"Well, you're honest and I understand that it's your job." He made a pause. His hand took a firmer grip of Keith's left shoulder. Keith felt his hot breath grazing his ear, his coat was floating around him. There was something ruby-coloured, maybe a scarf, fluttering by his side. "I knew you did, Keith."

Keith's heart made a loud thump before falling somewhere between his stomach and liver.

"I knew you did that because it was you job," Shiro continued, his voice still serious. "You were asked to to this."

"Well… yes," Keith admitted.

"I don't put the blame on you, Keith."

Keith tried to turn his head aorund so that he saw at least a piece of Shiro's face. "Why not?"

"Because this _is_ your job. And this here is mine."

"That doesn't make any sense."

Shiro chuckled. His grip got a bit less tight.

"So this was a trap?" Keith asked, although he had already understood.

Shiro shook his head. "No, this is no trap. This was on purpose."

Keith frowned. "How come? There is no one here."

"I _am_ here though. And you are."

"But the others.."

"There is no one else. Nobody knows that I'm here except Regris. I had to tell him. Sorry about that." Shiro's voice sounded bitter but somewhat wistful.

"It's okay." He just wanted to say something.

"I wanted to have you safe, Keith. I wanted to keep you away from this."

This time, Keith resisted the yakuza's grip and turned around, only to find himself pressed against Shiro's chest and in his embracement. He couldn't stop himself blushing.

"Why?" He managed to ask, a bit flustered.

Shiro's eyes showed emotions which seemed to be similar to the one's Keith had. But neither of them could articulate them. At least not yet. But Keith understood and nodded slowly as he raised his hands to lay them on Shiro's chest. There was only one thing the yakuza could explain.

"Because I wanted," Shiro whispered while pressing a kiss to Keith's temple.

"So… There is no meeting?"

"There is one. But not here."

"Where is it?" Keith was suddenly taken by his police officer instincts and Shiro seemed to see that.

He laughed quietly. "I can't tell you that."

Keith pouted.

"But I will tell you something, Keith. Something which might help you a little bit."

Keith raised an eyebrow and waited patiently for Shiro to continue.

"We have a grasp of things. We know more than the police anyway since this is in our range of measures." Shiro tilted his head. "I can't say that I'm not responsible, but I can at least share this. And I want you to know, I want you to believe me, that I would never want to kill anyone." His eyes got a pleading glance.

Keith nodded slowly. "I already do, Shiro."

They became silent for a while and listened to the cold rustling wind around them.

"We made the conversation up to let you come here. Like this I would be able to tell you without anyone knowing about us. I wanted to keep you safe, Keith."

"Everything was a lie," Keith mumbled.

Shiro placed his thumb and index finger below Keith's chin and lifted his head a bit.

"No," he said. "No, Keith. Most of the things were true you were listening to. But I knew that you wouldn't stop listening to us talking before I went to bed. Thus, I waited until the middle of the night to wake up and talk to Regris about it."

"That's why you were tired."

Shiro smiled. "Yeah, it was a pretty long night." He observed Keith closely. "But," he said then. "We were going in the right direction and now we're about to gather more intel. Once we would have everything, I would have asked you for help."

"Me? Why?" Keith understood what Shiro was saying but he couldn't deny to still be a bit angry.

"Because we used to work together once," Shiro explained.

"In the old days, yes. We have a new century already, Shiro."

"And what does it mean? I can still ask for your help, right? That's what makes you a police officer."

Keith swallowed. Shiro was right about that. He wanted to help and if he could do something, he wanted to do it. Especially for Shiro.

"So," Keith started and straightened himself in the embrace. "Did you?"

Shiro's confusion was everywhere on his face. "What?" He asked irritated.

"Did you kill them?"

Shiro didn't answer and it made Keith's chest hurt.

"Shiro! In order to help you, you need to tell me the truth. Even if it means that.."

"Okay, okay! I understand." Shiro lifted a placatory hand, before resting it again on Keith's shoulder.

But he didn't say anymore right away. Silence grew inbetween them where Keith observed Shiro's face and the thoughts running behind his eyes.

"Yes and no," Shiro finally said.

"Choose one, the men are dead," Keith said flatly.

Shiro chuckled painfully, without any joy in his voice. "Yes, I killed them, because I gave the order. And no, I didn't, because somebody else executed it."

Keith didn't know how to react to this or even start thinking about it. But he was somewhat relieved that Shiro wasn't the _real_ murder.

"I see," he said but it was more a whiff escaping his mouth.

"Do you need to get me into prison now?" Shiro wanted to know with a serious tone.

Keith smiled softly as he looked up to Shiro. "Not really."

They listened a while to the soft wind, Keith's palms still resting on the heaving chest, Shiro's grip soft on the cop's shoulder.

"I want to know how your worked this out," Keith said.

"What do you mean?" Shiro frowned.

Keith shrugged. "You said you waited until you knew I felt asleep because I thought you would do it too. But… I could have the night shift, right? What about this scenario?"

Shiro chuckled softly and stroke over Keith's cheeks, smiling softly. It irritated Keith but he couldn't deny that he liked it.

"It was a Monday," the yakuza finally said.

"Huh?"

"When we talked in the hotel, you once mentioned that you have the night shift from Monday to Tuesday. So it was safe to get up again and go out of my room for a longer time I would need for the bathroom."

Keith opened his mouth but he didn't know what to say. Then he snickered and nodded. He just had to accept it.

"I'm sorry for using the information you gave me privately."

Keith observed Shiro's regrettful face, but he reached up and stroke through Shiro's short hair with his gloved fingers. "It's okay," he mumbled.

"But you need to tell me now, what's your plan? What do you want to do to set things right again?"

Shiro's face showed that a heavy burden was taken from his shoulders. Not only because Keith wouldn't arrest him right away, but because his guild was taken.

"We need more intel," he said softly while rubbing over Keith's cheeks. It seemed totally casually but Keith's inside were set on fire by this. "Do you may know who is involved in all of this? Besides us yakuza I mean. There must be someone who had insides of information and knows more than each group does."

Keith frowned as he thought about the case and it's investigations.

"So far," he said. "There are four police officers working on the case. There is Hunk, you saw him already at the court."

"Your friend? The body builder type?" Shiro asked innocently.

Keith opened his mouth but wasn't sure what to say to this comment. "Uhhh," he managed.

"No? Of course he is a police officer, but.."

"Body builder??" Keith asked, his voice louder than intended.

Shiro shrugged. "Well, yes? He is kinda buff but in a different way. I bet he could smash your ribs with a tight grip if he really wanted to."

Keith hesitated but he had to admit that Shiro was right, Hunk was pretty strong. But he would've never compared him with a body builder type. He was rather… the Hunk-type.

"Anyway," he said. "There is Hunk and two other officers, Ken-san and Watanabe-san." 

Shiro thought about those names but they didn't seem to remind him of anything.

"And then there is me."

"Yeah, there you are." Shiro stroke again over Keith's cheeks and it made the cop's heart squeeze a little bit.

"Well," Keith shrugged "and our chief, but you can't mean him, right?"

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "I haven't met him yet?"

"No."

"Tell me more about him."

Keith started to describe Lotor, starting from his appearance (white hair, slender figure, firm and broad shoulders) to his personality (strong willed, clean speech, target-oriented).

Shiro frowned and asked several questions more. Keith had never thought about so many details before he tried to answer all of those now.

Once he had finished, the yakuza nodded slowly.

"I might know him," he murmured, more to himself than to Keith. His hands had dropped down on Keith's shoulders where they spread their warmth.

"He is your chief?"

Keith nodded.

"And he told you to come here and find out what we were about to discuss?"

"Yeah and… yeah."

"And?" Shiro had taken the small pause as a hint.

Keith averted his gaze and stared towards the dirty wall of the next warehouse.

"He…" Keith swallowed hard. It was so much more difficult to say what his actual mission was compared to being told that. Especially since the 'target', Shiro, was right in front of him.

Shiro tilted his lips and reached up once more, placing two fingers under Keith's chin to lift it. Keith was forced to look him in the eyes.

"I.. I couldn't ward off this order. I didn't…. I don't want to… I wouldn't have.. never, I.."

Shiro waited until his babbling slowed down and he could breathe again.

"I got the authorisation to kill you." Keith finally said, his voice flat and lifeless.

Shiro took it much better as expected. "Oh," he said quietly.

" _Oh_!? That's all you've got?" Keith was too surprised about this than to care about his own guilty feelings.

"Oh… no?" Shiro stayed serious. "Well, yes, that's all. But you didn't…"

"I would never kill you, Shiro!"

The second in command chuckled. "I would've been surprised if you wanted to. After everything we did together." He tilted his head as he watched Keith's face taking the colour of a freshly picked tomato.

Shiro pressed a kiss to Keith's temple and they stood still for a while.

"Your chief," he started anew.

"Hm?" Keith didn't want to let go of his touch. Shiro was broad and warm and welcoming him in his arms, he would never wanted to be somewhere else.

"You said he wasn't at the court so I didn't see him. What is his full name?"

"Lotor. Lotor Daiba."

"Daiba?" Shiro's voice broke as he spoke the chief's name. Keith felt that something was wrong about that. He lifted his head and met a pair of serious looking eyes.

"Shiro, what's wrong? Do you know him from somewhere? Shiro?"

The yakuza seemed to be frozen. He blinked several times before letting go of the police officer.

"I need to go," he said with a hoarse voice. "Let's meet later, I will explain."

He let got of Keith and turned around. He walked towards the east side of the warehouses and before he could disappear around the corner – leaving a stunned Keith – he turned around.

"Let's meet at the usual place, Keith!"


	25. A Group's Formation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro discusses with the other Blades.

"So our assumption was correct?" Kolivan's voice was as restrained as usual but his stern look seemed a bit irritated.

Shiro nodded slowly. He and Regris stood in front of the boss's table and looked down at the gathered intel.

The atmosphere was rather suffocating but Shiro was partly relieved to know much more than before. The difficulty would lie within dealing with the truth.

"There are two groups within one. Something must've happened at some point within the _Madoushi_." Shiro frowned. "The _Madoushi_ wanted to make the deal with us and the Americans. I assume that only the sub-group wanted to excecute the deal as they wanted to gain more profit out of it."

"We don't know this for sure," Kolivan added.

"Yes, that's true." Shiro nodded. "The main group might not have known that some of their members were involved with this."

"After the three dead men, there must've been a lot of commotion within the group as it was revealed that parts of them were involved into something bigger," Regris mentioned.

"Not necessarily." Shiro shook his head once. "It might be that those dead men at the _Wind Graveyard_ weren't original members of the _Madoushi_. We don't know that for sure, despite them looking Japanese. There are many foreigners looking like Asian people but they aren't."

Regris hummed approvingly.

"So we have two groups within the _Madoushi_. One not knowing about the sub-group executing the deal," Kolivan summarised.

"Yes." Shiro nodded. "The question is who the leader of this sub-group is. There must be someone behind all this managing the doings of the members. There might be even a power struggle between the current leader and the one of the sub-group."

"Someone opposing Haggar?" Regris asked. "They must be nuts."

"Truly."

"So which possibilities do we have? Who is the leader of the second group?"

They tought about this in silence.

Shiro was the first to say something again.

"It must be someone with enough power to order things within the _Madoushi_ but is not necessarily connected to the group entirely. That's why I assume that it can't be Sendak. He is too well known within his own ranks."

"Do you have someone else in mind?" Kolivan asked.

"Yes." Shiro took out a picture he had found in an older newspaper showing a scene in front of a court after an official hearing and gave it his boss.

"I've seen him before," the leader mumbled.

"Daiba Lotor," Shiro said. "He is the chief of the _Hyogoken_ police department and in charge of the investigation concerning the three dead men at the _Wind Graveyard_."

Kolivan squeezed his eyes and looked up to his son. "What makes you think that he is the one we're looking for?"

"If he's in the position I suspect him to be in, he knows every intel there is. Like parts of the _Madoushi_ , as well as things about the police which he can command. He ordered Kei-… a police officer to kill me as I told you this morning."

Kolivan frowned at that. Of course he had seen through Shiro's failed cover up. "You've met with a cop? Before this incident?"

Shiro hesitated but he coulnd't deny it anymore. And especially not in front of Kolivan who had raised him. "Yes," he admitted silently.

The _Blade_ 's leader nodded slowly but didn't comment on it. He hummed as he always did when he was thinking about a problem they had to solve.

"I haven't seen him before," the leader said. "He looks similar to Haggar but his name… might be from his father. They might be related but he must've covered any tracks of this connection."

He stared at the black and white picture of the newspaper.

"Any suggestions?" He asked as he looked from his son to Regris and back.

"We should talk with the _Madoushi_ ," Regris said. "We need to clarify a few things before they advance before us. Our last discussion wasn't really helpful."

Shiro and Kolivan both hummed in agreement as they remembered their attempts to have a proper talk with some of the _Madoushi,_ among them Amano Takao, a few days before. In vain.

"Maybe Haggar already knows that there is a subgroup within. We should warn them or they could face an internal war," Regris continued.

"We certainly don't want that," Kolivan agreed. "We will let them know but rather subtle. We can't make a direct approach. We need to talk to them in person." He stood up and walked around the table. "Regris, I entrust you with this task. Mind the circumstances, stay calm."

"Yes, Sir." The _Blade_ 's calm face showed no sign of fear or uneasiness with his assignment.

"And Shiro." Kolivan turned towards his son. "You should contact the cop again."

"Wh-what? Why?" Shiro couldn't help but loose his composure for a moment. He would have never thought that Kolivan considered using the help of a cop a possibility.

"Because he knows Lotor better than we do at the moment. And he can influence their reaction at least a little bit."

Shiro nodded.

"What is his name?"

"Wha-"

"The cop. What is his name?" Kolivan's face was as stern as ever but there was honest curiousity in his eyes.

"Keith," Shiro said without hesitation. He knew he could trust Kolivan to not let this cop into any danger. "Kogane Keith."

"I understand. Meet up with him and ask for his help."

"And what exactly will his help be?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"I'll explain this right away."


	26. A new Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of a plan, but Shiro still wants Keith to be safe.

Keith had never been this nervous.

"You didn't?"

Keith hesitated. But there was no way around agreeing with this statement.

"Yes, Sir," he said with a quiet voice. "I didn't kill him."

Lotor tapped with his fingers on his desk in his office. His eyebrows were twitching over his glowing eyes. The constant whip of hair in front of his face danced a little bit, as if there was an angry wind blowing in his face. Even his somewhat pointy ears seemed to be in movement.

He was angry, without any doubt.

Without any warning, he abruptly stood up. The scratching of the chair's legs were unnecessarily loud. Lotor walked around the table, towards the filing shelve and turned around to pass Keith who stood in front of his desk, hands behind his back. The heavy feeling of the unused loaded gun made his guilt somewhat heavier.

"You didn't," he repeated, his voice still demanding and strongwilled.

"I'm sorry, Sir. I just don't see any point in kil-"

"Kogane."

Keith flinched at the sudden calm voice. He wanted to ask a _Sir?_ but no voice came out of his opened mouth.

"This was an _order_ and I authorised you to execute what I demanded. How could you not compromise with your chief's request? Kogane?"

Keith wanted to apologise but there wasn't aynthing he could say which was the truth.

"I want to do something which doesn't necessarily harm someone, even the suspect," he said. "I think there is another way to investigate someone, which we haven't really done in this aspect. If I can truly execute what I was ordered to in the first place, I would gladly do so." He formed his hands to fists in order to stay calm.

"We can't just go kill the one we suspect to be the murderer. This is not the right way and nothing which I have learned in the past years. Sir."

Lotor seemed stunned about this repsonse. A solid minute passed but then…

He chuckled.

"Alright, Kogane. Go on with gathering intel and we might be successful. Tell me by the end of the week if there is something we don't know yet, oherwise you'd need to execute the second in command."

Keith nodded slowly, though he didn't quite accept the last part yet. Two days can be a long time.

He bowed and left the room. Before he closed the door, he threw a glance at his chief.

Lotor still seemed uneasy and twitchy. He continued walking around between the filing shelves and the wall covered by the map of Kobe while he was nervously kneading his fingers.

Keith left and felt relief in his bones once the door was finally closed.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


He was nervous.

Keith didn't need the two empty bottles of beer and his foot constantly tapping on the floor to understand himself.

 _The usual place_ , he had said. _Let's meet_ , he had said.

Keith thought about their last encounter non-stop. He had come to the bar and waited for two hours already, but the yakuza hadn't shown up so far. Well, they hadn't made an appointment for this day but since Shiro knew parts of his working shifts and would figure out when Keith was able to go to a bar, he would appear at some point.

Since it was a weekday, the bar was relatively empty. Keith nipped slowly from his third beer. The first had been gone in a fast pace, he had slowed up with the second. The third left him somewhat twitchy. He didn't feel like drinking anymore, even though he had been working most of the day in which he tried to get more information about anything. But… there hadn't been much.

Why wasn't he coming? Where was Shiro? Keith wanted answers to the yakuza's strange behaviour the day before. What was wrong? And why did he react so strange hearing about his chief?

Keith got more and more angry and stared holes into the counter which is why he didn't notice the small ringing of the bell above the door.

A faint _Welcome_ announced a new customer and the scratching from wood over wood right next to the police officer made him finally realise that someone had come in.

"Shi-"

"I'm late Keith." Shiro smiled appologisingly.

"Oh it's… Hell, you're late! Where have you been? I waited for half of the day!" Keith stood up and put his hands into his hips.

"I'm sorry. Please, sit down again. You spilled your beer as well."

Keith blinked and looked at the counter where his beer bottle was indeed on the side, dripping it's content on the old wood.

"Didn't feel like drinking anyway." Keith shrugged but sat down as he noticed that the bartender came with a cloth to wipe the beer. "But honestly."

"I know, Keith." Shiro put a placatory hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that you had to wait for so long. And you already had two beer."

"I can keep it well."

"I'm sure of it." Shiro tilted his head as he observed the police officer with a rather fond smile. "I will take over the bill if you like."

"That's the least you could do." Keith still pouted over it.

"Keith." He had a soothing voice.

Keith didn't react and looked at the now cleaned counter, the empty bottle had been removed as well.

"Keith, look at me."

He shook his head.

Shiro sighed and moved from his bar stool. Keith was just about to glance if the yakuza was leaving again but only saw himself engulfed in black fabric. "Shi-"

The yakuza tightened the hug and stroke a hand through Keith's hair. "I'm sorry, really." He whispered into his ear and his hot breath made Keith shiver. "I should've hurried to come here."

Shiro started to rub his lips over Keith's earlobe and the police officer noticed the somewhat envious glance of the bartender before he averted his gaze.

And Shiro continued with his attempts to sooth Keith with a voice which sounded as if he was grinning but totally honest as well.

"I'm sorry, Keith. Can I somehow make it up to-"

"Okay, okay, I understand. Now sit down again."

Shiro removed himself and smiled at Keith while sitting down. "You know that this is a gay bar, right?"

Keith grunted. "I know very well, thank you for reminding me."

Shiro tilted his head. "Do you regret meeting me?"

Keith opened his mouth to respond with an obvious lie. But he closed it again and shook his head.

"No," he said quietly. "I don't."

Shiro nodded as if he wanted to agree. They sat in silence for a while. Keith felt his heart calming down again and his anger disappeared. He was rather relieved that Shiro was finally here, with him.

"I got some intel for you," Shiro then said.

Keith lifted his head. "What kind of?"

Shiro curled his lips, a painful expression on his face. Keith waited patiently for him to continue.

"We're after your chief," the yakua finally said, a bit quieter now.

"What!?" Keith shouted, but then flinched at his own words and looked around. He bowed and apologised quietly to the bartender and other customers, before focusing on Shiro again.

"We did some research and apparently your chief had been seen with members of the _Madoushi_ without any police officer accompanying him. Took a while to get this intel though, not without any fight."

"And you knew him?"

"The man you descriped was somewhat familiar to someone I heard of. He might be related to the current leader."

"The _witch_?"

Shiro snickered. "So even among the police it's known that she possesses some kind of power."

"It's kind of special." Keith shrugged. He still had to digest those information and couldn't quite belief them at first. On the other hand, Lotor's behaviour had been somewhat strange in the past weeks. Especially the order to eliminate Shiro.

"So, what is your plan?"

Shiro raised and eyebrow and seemed surprised. "I thought you would be more shocked."

"I _am_ shocked, Shiro. But I also have a cool head as a cop."

A small nod followed. "I see. Well," Shiro sighed and kneaded his fingers. "We have a plan which will be discussed in detail in a meeting within our group."

"You want to lure him into a trap?"

"Kind of," Shiro said.

"I want to be there."

"Wha- ? Keith, no. We will need the police to do the afterwork for the court and such things but you can't… Keith."

"Why not?"

Shiro reached out and grabbed his hand. "Because it will be dangerous. I don't want you to be in there."

"If my chief is the one behind all this mess, than you need someone to arrest him. And I have the handcuffs." Keith chuckled as he watched Shiro's emotions running over his face. "This is no matter of a personal decision. I don't plan on dying, Shiro. And I won't let you die as well. And besides, this is my responsibility as I lead the investigation."

Shiro seemed to hesitate but sighs and nods. "Yeah, I understand."

"So, let me know about your plan."

Shiro hesitated, but then he nodded, approving Keith's participation.

"It's rather simple. We, the Blades, will meet up with the dealer from America at the harbour. You will tell your chief about this meeting to lure him in. He should think that we're about to settle a new deal with the Americans. He probably wants to stop it and will send his followers, which are part of the _Madoushi_. This is a big thing so he should come as well. We will give some evidences and proof that Lotor is the one who originally planned to destroy the good relation we had with the _Madoushi_ before all this."

"And I will arrest my chief."

Shiro nodded.

"This will be a bit tricky."

"Why? Didn't you just say that..."

"I know what I said." Keith lifted a hand. "But I will need to talk to the head of the police department from Kobe. The head of all departments in Kobe. I need to verify that I'm allowed to arrest the chief."

Shiro didn't say anything for a while.

"You really trust me, huh?"

Keith snickered. "Yeah," he said. "If this is wrong it might cost my license as a police officer. So don't blow this, yeah?"

"I'm hundred percent sure about this," Shiro said with a smile and eagerness.

"I didn't want to hear anything else."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course he'll be in there, what did Shiro think?


	27. Lure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's starting.

Three days passed.

They had been full of work and spent energy. Every evening, Keith was laying in his bed and sighed deeply, wanting this all to end soon. But he had to be patient. They couldn't rush this. He had talked to Hunk about Shiro's assumption and together they had thought about the possibility of their chief being with the _Madoushi_. Or at least some of them.

Hunk had summarised quite some things which had happened throughout all of the investigations. And having these summarised so bluntly, Keith noticed that he hadn't put much attention to the overall connection. But now, where his friend was saying them all at once, it made sense to suspect Lotor.

It was hard work to convince the head of the Kobe's police department but eventually Keith got the permission to arrest Lotor if the evidences were clear and Keith would put his head on the line if there should be proof in the end that Lotor wasn't the culprit.

At the end of the third day, Keith decided to go once more to the bar. He hadn't made any appointment with Shiro, not knowing his phone number was one reason as he literally wasn't able to reach out the modern way. Keith just wanted to go and see if the usual place turned out to be indeed their usual place.

And he wasn't disappointed.

And as Keith walked down the stairs and opened the door wih the familiar bell ringing, he saw the yakuza sitting at the counter with a glass of amber liquid in his hand.

At the sound of the bell, Shiro turned his head and smiled. He looked as exhausted as Keith felt. He had dark rings underneath his eyes and his white fluff of hair looked flatter than before. Nevertheless, he was as mesmerising as ever and Keith could totally comprehend.

Keith moved towards the counter, opened his coat and put it on the hook attached to the wood. He nodded towards the bartender to order the usual beer before turning his head.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," Shiro responded, chuckling softly.

"I got it."

"Huh?" Shiro had lifted his glass and stopped in midway, a confused frown between his brows.

"The permission to arrest. From the head of us. I got it."

The yakuza nodded slowly. "I see," he said. "That's good to know. I relied on your persistence, you know? Without it we wouldn't be able to proceed any further."

"Persistence?" Keith laughed quietly.

"Well, was I wrong?"

Keith tilted his head and curled his lips. "Maybe not. I work hard to get what I desire."

"Oh really, I'm a good listener to such stories." Shiro leaned closer.

"I might tell you later." Keith winked at him. "But continue. What do we do now? What is your plan?"

Shiro's face turned a tad more serious. "We gonna meet with the _Madoushi_. The day after tomorrow, at the _Wind Graveyard_."

"Alright. Wait." Keith frowned. "What would you do if we wouldn't set this up."

Shiro shrugged. "Still meet them. Although I guess that the outcome and our way of dealing with them would be different, I guess."

"Thank god I met you." Keith said flatly, but meant it.

"Indeed." Shiro smiled quietly.

They shared a long glance before turning to their drinks .

"Tell him about this. Make it look like this is something important so that he has to appear as well."

"I will," Keith confirmed. "What about the rest of the plan?"

"It's set."

"Alright."

Shiro cleared his throat and put down his half emptied glass. "It might be a bit chaotic. I will be hard work once more. But as soon we can convince not only the _Madoushi_ but also the other officers that he has something to do with it, we might see more light in all of this."

Keith observed Shiro as he said it. "Are there rules among the yakuza?" He asked quietly.

Shiro nodded. "Yeah," he whispered. "And if Lotor truly split up the Madoushi and created another inside, it's dealed as treason. If you don't arrest him, Haggar might kill him for good."

"I think this convices me."

Shiro chuckled. "To do the right thing and safe your chief?"

Keith smiled. "Maybe. I don't want to see more people dying around me."

Shiro's glance was full of cares and worries. "He won't. You will stop him, I know you can. And I'll be there as well."

"Yeah." Keith reached unintentionally for his arm and grabbed it. "Thank you, Shiro."

The yakuza placed his right hand, which was a bit calloused but actually quite warm, on top of his. And they stayed like this for a while, words unneeded.

After some more time, they finished their drinks and went outside together. The night was a bit chilly and the stars were clearly visible on the night's sky.

Keith observed how Shiro closed his black coat slowly while emitting white clouds into the air as he breathed out. His white hair was a stark contrast to the rest of his clothes but it looked amazingly good on him.

He suddenly felt bad for putting a bug on him.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Hm?" Shiro turned his head and watched him.

"Sorry that… I put a bug on you. I really didn't want to spy on your private life. I just wanted to… I was told to..."

Two warm hands gripped his shoulders. Shiro's face was above him and smiled down at the smaller man.

"It's okay," the yakuza said, his voice warm and calming. "I know why you had to do this. And I'm glad that you were the only one, who… Well, I guess you shared the work with other officers but still. I'm glad it was you who listened to my doings. Besides, I didn't do much during this time, right?"

Keith chuckled dryly. "Well, because you knew that I placed a bug there."

"True. But… I don't mind to have something of you in my private life in turn."

Keith made big eyes and stared into the soft grey onces hovering above him.

Shiro seemed to hesitate but asked nevertheless. "Care to join me for the night?"

Keith understood why this was something more… advanced. This felt different compared to all the times before they had gone to a room.

He glanced towards the hotel signs close by and pondered the situation. But there was still some time and the evening was off. Better this than laying at home in his bed jerking off to images he kept well hidden inside his mind from their last time. _This_ was definitly better.

He nodded. "Sure."

Together, they left the place in front of the usual bar to walk towards another usual place, hands brushing every once in a while.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Keith had never been so nervous during his entire career as a police officer when he talked to his chief the next morning.

His heart was poundering incessantly is his chest, his palms were sweaty, and he blinked often. Maybe too often but Lotor didn't seem to notice. Maybe because he was nervous himself.

Hunk, who stood next to Keith, was the serenity in person and Keith wished he could at least emit the same easiness as his friend could.

"When exactly will they meet?" Lotor asked.

Keith had already told him that the _Blades_ and _Madoushi_ would meet at the container harbour the next day.

"Tomorrow morning, at 11AM."

"Where?" Lotor squeezed his eyes nearly shut as he examined his officers.

"At the _Wi_ … container harbour." Keith had nearly said the unoffical name, which was mainly used by yakuza.

"I see. And this meeting..."

"Yes?"

"What will it be about? You heard through the bug you said."

"Yes!" Keith nodded to emphasise his word. "The bug was still on him, of course, and Hunk and me and the others took turns to listen. And it was yesterday where we..."

"I know about that." Lotor waved with his hand. "So, tomorrow?"

"Yes, Sir. I heard them discussing about the matter and it seems they have a clue. There must've something happened inside the _Madoushi_ group's setup and the second in command will be there to ask them himself. They also have evidences to point out who exactly is responsible for the break between those two groups." Keith was a bit surprised how easily he could lie in front of his chief.

"So, what is their guess?" Lotor stood up and walked around, just like the last time Keith had seen him in this office, in the same state of nervousness he was now.

"They think that there are people within the _Madoushi_ not following the leader's commands. The two groups had a deal together with a foreign group, but it was broken off since someone gave the wrong intel which caused several deaths and the distrust existing now."

Lotor hummed while walking. He didn't say anything for some minutes and Hunk and Keith exchanged a glance.

Something was off and now they were sure about it. Normally, Lotor was a man of sudden but precise decisions. Well thought in advance as he had analysed the situation before. It seemed that something had happened which he hadn't expected. But even though his reaction was slow now.

When he finally nodded, rather to himself than towards his officers, Keith was a bit relieved to get any reaction at all.

"You'll go there tomorrow," the chief demanded. "We will all go there. We might need to split up since we will attract attention. But we need to check this out."

"You too, Sir?" Hunk asked puzzled. "It might not be necessary. Keith and me will be able to.."

"Yes, Garret, even me. I'll join you. It's my privilege as the chief." Lotor raised an eyebrow, looking askingly at Hunk. The officer nodded swiftly.

"So." The chief clapped his hands once. "Let's think about a plan."


	28. Lunatic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find themselves back again, at the _Wind Graveyard_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go!

Despite having a rather cloudy day, no water came rushing down as during typoon season.

Keith was relieved about it since rain was the last thing he needed while hiding on top of a giant metal box ready to be shipped to whereever. Hunk and Lotor were cowering next to or behind him, watching the surrounding scenery with careful eyes.

They were at the container harbour once more. It was somewhat ironic to be here since everything had started somewhere between those containers they used as a hideout now. The same place where everything had began and where Keith would, if everything was going according to the plan, arrest his own chief.

Life was weird at times.

He was a bit fidget since Lotor was right behind him, still able to give orders or command them to retreat as he had done before. But so far the chief had rather seemed curious and showed no sign of nervousness.

Though, this might be applicable for many suspects.

Hunk was obviously the most nervous compared to Lotor and Keith together, but this was barely any hint at all, as Hunk was often nervous.

Kosmo hadn't come with them today. Keith figured that hiding on top of a container wasn't the best spot to take a giant dog. Moreover, Kosmo would be too excited over everything happening and Keith needed to focus on the mission, not wanting to be distracted by his fluffy friend. He would make sure to give him some extra cuddle time later though.

The black haired police officer looked towards the other container where a couple of their colleagues had gathered. They might need more then just the three of Keith's group since nobody knew what was about to happen, thus Keith had suggested to take at least ten police officers with them. Now, all of them were around, not be to be seen but the locations known to Keith, who was leading this mission.

The harbour was empty. Lotor had checked with the head of the harbour site in advance and as it turned out, there had been an incident to some connected pipe to the site which blocked the electricity. Everybody had to stop all work for a couple of hours which is why nobody was here.

Apparently, this was the work of someone who had wanted exactly this outcome. Keith was unsure whether the _Blades_ or _Madoushi_ were behind this, but it didn't really matter now.

As a matter of fact, Lotor had made Keith responsible for everything that would happen today and the police officer couldn't think of anything to say against this. He had the permission to arrest him, fair enough to be only responsible for this.

Keith glanced to his wrist watch. _It_ _'_ _s nearly time_ , he thought, remembering the rough schedule Shiro had shared with him.

And as if this had been some kind of a sign, a black car made it's way towards the entrance of the harbour. It was a Mercedes, all unnecessary glasses were tinted. There were two more cars approaching from different sides. Keith wondered how they were all able to enter the site this easily, but this would be something to find out later.

The cars stopped not far away from the container they were hiding at and with distant between them. As if they wanted to show that they literally didn't belong to each other.

There were four men disembarking the Mercedes.

Keith's heart skipped a beat when he saw Shiro in his black coat, his white hair tossled by the salty wind. One of the others had a broad figure and Keith knew his face. He was tall, even taller than Shiro. And the way Shiro walked somewhat next to the bigger man but with a respecting distance, Keith knew that this was the leader of the _Blades_. They really got all out.

There were two others following them, Keith had seen them at the court before.

The second car were the _Madoushi_. Keith recognised some faces he had seen when the incident at the garage had taken place. They looked rather grim and determined where the _Blades_ seemed calm and directed. Keith was sure that those _Madoushi_ were not from the main group, but from the sub-group which had formed and Shiro had mentioned. But one face was already known: Amano Takao. The same man which had been at the place with the cold room where the corpse had been kept.

The third car was a rather normal one, a small Toyota, normally tourists would rent at an airport. And indeed… As soon as the passengers got out, Keith took a sharp breath through his teeth.

They were foreigners, all of them.

Keith heard Lotor shifting behind him, but he didn't say anything.

The _Blades_ , _Madoushi_ and group of foreigners, whose pale skin stood out comapred to the darker Japanese, approached each other and met about 50 meters distance to the container on which Keith and the others hid.

Keith bit his lower lip and squinted his eyes. Shiro waited patiently next to his boss who wore a stern expression. There was another man with a calm face and broad shoulders who seemed to be Shiro's guard. It put Keith at ease to have Shiro guarded. But he knew that the second in command could protect himself pretty good.

Memories of two days ago popped up in Keith's mind and he tried to suprress them before the heat could overtake him. But he fondly remembered once thing: Shiro had to promise to not kill anyone. He didn't want to arrest him as well.

The greeting of the three groups was basically non-existent.

"I'm stunned that he boss itself is present," Amano said and his voice echoed from the container walls. Keith would have no problem understanding the conversation. "What made the great Kolivan come to the _Wind Graveyard_?"

The _Blade_ 's leader, Kolivan, grunted. He ignored the obvious sarcasm in Amano's voice.

"I think we all have our reasons to be here," Shiro said instead. "But I would like to ask where _your_ boss is, Amano-san."

The _Madoushi_ 's second in command tilted his head. "Good question indeed, Wakagashira. But before we come to this, I would like to meet our guests."

He nodded towards the foreigners. Amano started to speak to them in English and the leader of the smallest group seemed to be delighted to hear familiar words.

"This is Martinez Nels as you know."

Shiro made big eyes and seemed obviously surprised.

 _So, was this the one they had a deal with?_ Keith thought.

"He made his long way from America to settle and finalise the deal we had with him. And what does he find?" Amano made an artistically pause. "Two groups fighting each other. I guess this is not a nice welcome, right?"

"This is not our fault," Shiro said, his voice calm but loud. His eyes went forth and back between the other second in command and Martinez. "We were given misleading information which ended in wrong decisions."

The American's eyes were apparently puzzled. He raised an eyebrow and looked askingly to Amano.

Shiro clicked his tongue and turned towards Regris.

"You know English, right? Translate, so that he can understand what is going on."

Regris nodded but as soon as Keith listened to his broken words, he understood the hesitation. Regris spoke English, yes, but he wasn't really good at it.

But good enough for Martinez to understand. Although he still seemed to be confused about the content.

Shiro continued after his fellow Blade had finished. Since the American hadn't really understood their problem, Amano chuckled softly, but it sounded rather terrifying.

"The _Madoushi_ group tricked you," Shiro continued. "We had wanted to make a deal together as you very well know." He looked at Martinez while talking. "But there were information that the _Madoushi_ wanted to kill me. Therefore, we took measures and killed the men who were responsible for giving us information about the deal we had. This lead to different occasions afterwards."

Regris spoke and translated with a hard accent. Martinez squinted his eyes and when Regris had finished, he looked at Amano, wanting an answer form his point of view.

"We're sorry to have inconvenieced you," Amano said, his sneering smile stil glued to his face. "There were some misunderstandings. The _Blade of Marmora_ propably didn't want to have this deal with you anymore, that's why we thought we could proceed on our own."

"Excuse me," Shiro said, daring. "But you should have contacted us in this case which you never did. There was never any intention of us to bail out of this deal."

"Maybe our message didn't reach you?" Amano suggested.

Keith could see that Shiro got angry. His jaw flexed and his eyes got a stern look.

Suddenly the American said something.

"What did he say?" Shiro hastily turned towards Regris.

"He said that he just wants the goods and leave." The _Blade_ 's eyes rested for a while on Martinez's face, even while translating.

"I think that he doesn't really care about our problems," another Blade said. It was Antok, as Keith remembered his name back then from the day of the court.

"I hope he is aware that people died because of the incompetence of the group they had choosen to be with," Shiro replied through gritted teeth.

"I am sorry," Amano said but he didn't sound sorry at all. "But it was _you_ who killed our men in the beginning."

"It wouldn't have happened if your leader hadn't tricked us with the wrong intel."

Martinez said something again.

"What?" Shiro and Amano both asked.

"He asked where your leader is," Regris translated, pointing towards Amano's gathered group.

Shiro opened his mouth but closed it again, looking at Amano.

"Well," the _Madoushi_ said, slowly. "He is not here. But we didn't trick you," he added as if to avoid the topic.

"You killed my man," Shiro said deadpan.

"Because you killed ours first!" It was the first time where Amano showed some sort of personal emotions.

"That's because we got the wrong intel. You wanted to kill me in the very first place is what they said. That's why we decided to do this. We wanted to protect our group!"

"Well, this was exactly what we wanted to do as well."

Keith observed how Martinez looked confused and angry from one second in command to the other. He didn't understand a single word of the fight as Regris didn't translate a word for him.

Shiro and Amano went on, supported by the shouts of their group members. Kolivan seemed to be the only one staying calm, as well as Antok.

It was when Keith started to think that they needed a better strategy for how to proceed, when the American suddenly cursed. Keith flinched hearing his harsh English.

"Enough!" Amano shouted and pulled a gun from under his suit. It didn't look like he wanted to aim anywhere specific, but when the gun shot was released, a scream echoed from the metal walls.

Keith squinted his eyes to see who was hurt and his heart throbbed with pain, afraid to have Shiro bleeding, maybe dying somewhere there.

It was Regris, who was clutching tightly to his pants which wetted with the dark colour of blood.

"What do we do, what do we do?" Hunk mumbled nonstop behind him and Lotor shushed him to silent.

A grunt was all verbal reaction from the _Blades_ , as Shiro stepped forwards to shield the wounded Regris. Amano directed his gun on him but didn't seem to have any intention on firing.

The tension built up between those three groups and when the Americans started to shout and Martinez made loud orders, the fight finally broke out.

Keith knew that he couldn't wait any longer. Even if it meant to not have Lotor uncovered, he wouldn't let anyone else die or get heavily injured if he was able to prevent it. He turned around as he still needed his higher up to agree.

Lotor made a pale face and when he saw Keith's thump up, asking silently for an OK, he shook his head.

"Sir," Keith formed soundless with indignation in his mimic. "We need to charge in," he formed with his lips.

And it took an eternity for Lotor to finally give a teeny tiny nod.

Keith made the sign and the other police officers used the hidden ladders to come down the container and rush into action.

When Keith descended the ladder and noticed his chief following, he heard him click his tongue in antipathy. But Keith didn't mind this right now.

They charged in.

It took some rustling and pure force to get the three groups entangled. Most of them had fought with bare hands, for which Keith was grateful, but getting the armed men to lay down their weapons while still being fired up and ready to go was another matter.

A couple of bruises later, Keith heard Hunk screaming wildly as he crushed two mafiosi against each other, silencing everybody around him while he was searching for the next armed yakuza who still wasn't willing to lay down his weapon.

Keith was more than relieved to have his body builder type friend with him.

Finally, they calmed down. The yakuza, foreigners and police officers were breathing heavily, but nobody seemed to be injured too badly.

Keith looked around. His colleagues were separating every group. Hunk stood next to Regris and checked up on him but he didn't seem to be in danger of life. Shiro's eyes were once more calm and a bit worried as he overlooked the situation as well. In the end, he met Keith's eyes and indicated a slight bow.

"Alright, stay where you are!" Keith said with a loud voice and hoped that his urging was enough. The Americans and _Madoushi_ still seemed a bit furious, but non of them made a move.

Keith glanced towards Lotor, who was halfy hidden by some officers. He had pulled his hat deep into his face. When Keith looked from his chief to Shiro, he saw the yakuza nodding.

There was no doubt.

"Sir, how do you want to proceed?" Keith asked. He felt his own voice trembling. This would be a chance and he was glad that he had so much back-up.

Lotor flinched but tried to hide it by grabbing his collar tightly.

"Sir?" Keith tried once more. With each second he got more and more nervous. But he needed to focus. This might be the only chance to lure his chief into a trap.

"Chief? Do we arrest all of them?" Hunk asked obliviously.

"No," Lotor finally said. He sighed and lifted his head a bit, but this small action seemed to be enough. His hidden hair from underneath his coat got visible.

"Daiba!" Martinez shouted.

Everybody froze and turned towards the American who started talking in his mothertongue, obviously relieved to see the chief.

"What is he saying?" Shiro asked his fellow Blade.

Regris frowned.

"He saw him before. They met when Martinez first came to Japan to talk about the deal with the _Madoushi_." His face was crumbled due to the pain the shot in his leg caused. "He says that he is the leader of the _Madoushi_."

"But Haggar is the leader," Kolivan said. He stepped forwards and examined the chief, looming over him. He nearly casted a cloud over him. "What is your name?"

Lotor's fisted hand trembled but he still didn't say a word.

"Sir! You can't be the leader of the _Madoushi_ since Haggar is it." Shiro took a few steps to stand next to his boss. "Please explain yourself."

"He's lying," Lotor mumbled.

"Sorry?" Kolivan asked since the chief had spoken silently.

Lotor grunted and raised his head a bit. His eyes had a wrathful glance which made Keith take half a step back out of reflex. He had never seen his chief to angry. Even not during the time when he had to admit that he failed the orders of his chief.

"He is lying!" Lotor shouted. He lifted his head and straighened himself, while his hair escaped the refrains of his collar. His glare was now openly directed towards the American. "I have never met him and never talked to them."

"He seemed to be quite sure of it though," Shiro doubted.

"Shut your mouth, Blade! We're not here to have me interrogated."

"Then answer one question, if you may." Shiro tilted his head, his expression was calm but Keith could tell that he had an ace in his sleeve.

"And what is it?"

Shiro took another step towards the chief. They were now in the centre of the whole gathering.

"How come that you talked to Amano on the phone just yesterday evening, discussing today's meet-up at the _Wind Graveyard_?"

Silence.

Keith made big eyes and he felt his heart starting to race. Shiro planned this after they had made the schedule for today? He had put a bug on Amano to trace him?

Lotor seemed surprised as well, maybe a bit more than Keith. The chief opened his mouth to speak but no tone came out of it.

"There we have it," Shiro mumbled satsified. "We monitored your people and I must say that there were some interesting things we had to discover."

Lotor took another step towards the _Blade of Marmora_ , but slowed down.

Keith looked at the _Madoushi_ 's second in command and saw him slightly shaking his head. His eyes were directed towards Lotor, apologisingly and horrified at the same time.

Lotor turned towards Amano and whispered loud enough: "You had one job, Amano."

"I-I'm sorry, Sir. I'm so very sorry.."

"You! You bastard! How could you let this happen!?" Lotor seemed to have made his decision for whom he should go for. He turned around and hurried towards Amano.

Albeit being a tall and massive figure himself, Amano seemed defenceless against his boss. But maybe this was explained by the lack of power a yakuza had over his own boss, who he had just deceived, although unintentionally.

Keith hurried forwards but Hunk was faster. He and two other officers pulled them apart.

"Sir," Keith started, as soon as Lotor was fixed between the officer's hands. But it didn't feel right to call him like this. Not anymore. "No," he said quietly and shook his head.

He straighened himself and cleared his throat. "Lotor Daiba," he said loudly. "Herewidth, I arrest you due to the suspicion of embezzled facts and the ensuing events, for example the murder of several people."

Lotor's eyes widened in shock as he saw that Keith drew his handcuffs and came closer.

"No, you wouldn't… Kogane! I forbid you to..."

Keith bit his lower lip and opened the cold metal. Hunk pulled his chief's arms forwards so that he could put them on. He hadn't expected that he would feel so bad all of a sudden.

_He_ _was arresting his own_ _chief._

"Kogane!" Lotor screamed in his ear but Keith didn't flinch. Although he just wanted to run away from the scene, as far away as possible.

Lotor twisted in the grip of the metal and shouted and swore and cursed. He lost his composure and screamed some weird things as if he had become a lunatic. It was too sad to watch him like this.

"I just wanted to save them… Only a little bit would've saved them… It will come… The Quintessence, we need..." His shouts turned into wimpers as the officers brought him towards the cars.

Keith just stood there where he had just arrested his chief, unable to move ot speak anything.

He noticed that the other officers took the yakuza and Americans in custody but he didn't really care anymore. It was finally over.

He sighed.

"It was the right thing to do, Keith."

A warm hand settled on his shoulder and he looked up into the warm smiling face of Shiro. He looked exhausted but content.

"Now, we will do this right."

Keith nodded. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Now comes a lot more work."

Shiro chuckled.

"Kogane, you gotta take this one?" Watanabe had approached them and asked while passing by, leading one of the _Madoushi_ away.

Keith swallowed but eventually looked up to Shiro once more, this time a bit more confidently.

"Yeah," he said quietly, nodding. "I will take this one."


	29. Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where did it all start?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm no expert in laws for what kind of punishment is suited for those crimes, but I think I fit them as best as I know.

The scene at the _Wind Graveyard_ followed a long process of intel gathering, recording, taking notes, sorting the existing infromation, and taking statements of several people connected to the case.

There was a lot of work and Keith's weeks were so full, that there was nothing else he did besides getting up and going to work, before returning to his flat again. His job took all energy he had left so that it seemed that his body just wanted to continue working even though the day's work was actually done. He wished that he at last would be able to sleep during the night.

After two months had passed, the official hearing started at the court. Keith, Hunk, several other police officers, the _Blade of Marmora_ , the _Madoushi_ , the Americans and some citizens had been invited to give testimony to the occurences connected to the deal between the _Madoushi_ and _Blades_ which had evolved unvoluntaringly into something much bigger.

Those weeks included long days at the court and Keith saw many members which he had only had seen from afar ot nor at all before.

There were the _Madoushi_. Amano Takao was there who seemed to have lost his energy and spoke tired and slow, his voice a shadow of his own power he had illustrated at the container harbour.

There were some other who had been at the _garage-incident_ , as Keith referred this to.

And there was the actual leader of the _Madoushi_ : Haggar. She was a relatively young woman with white hair and a stern expression. Her voice was sharp and sounded strict when she directed it to her group's members.

Keith couldn't quite believe that she was the mother of Lotor, but so it was.

Another member was catching Keith's attention as soon as he entered the courtroom. He was a huge man, his face and exposed skin was scarred. His left arm was replaced with a prosthesis. Keith somehow senses that this was the rumoured Sendak Shiro had told him about.

He indeed looked like a brutal man and didn't say a word in the whole process, only presenting as a member of the group itself. Keith didn't like him. Of course, he had never met him before and hadn't had any contact with him during the whole court sessions, but since he knew that this man had hurt Shiro so badly, he was relieved that this man hadn't been included into Lotor's plans.

But maybe Lotor and Sendak weren't on good terms either.

Lotor himself was there as well. He was right in the middle of the action as he stood in the center of control in this whole plot. Keith had gotten to terms with all of this, but he was still a bit shocked that he had to arrest his own chief. Luckily, non of his colleagues made him feel guilty about it. Hunk was very supportive and said that most of the others would've been to afraid to put handcuffs on their own chief. It made Keith feel somewhat lighter. He was glad to have Hunk by his side, ensuring him with loyality and friendship he needed.

Then there were the Americans whose statements were translated by an official ordered translator from the court. They seemed nerrvous to be in Japan for such a long time and there was definitily a punishment waiting for them in America as well, but this was beyond Keith's purview.

And of course there were the _Blades_. Keith had seen many of them, although only on a picture.

The leader, Kolivan, wore an indifferent expression, but his eyes were glowing and his mouth was neutrally drawn. He spoke calmly and soft, his voice steady.

Haggar and he seemed to know each other, Keith could tell as soon as they met in the court room. But neither of them said a word. They just seemed to be glaring at each other from afar.

The Blade Regris seemed to have recovered quickly, but he still walked with crutches and bit his lips as soon as he stepped accidently on his injured leg.

And then there was Shiro.

Keith didn't talk much to him during this time. There were some occasions at the police department when they had to make their statements and were on a break. But neither of them had the chance to meet outside of their jobs. Moreover, both of them were too tired to go anywhere and Keith didn't want to risk anything before things were settled. The outcome of the whole trial wasn't clear yet and he didn't want to be discovered fooling aorund with the yakuza in question.

Although, Keith wasn't sure if he could still call it 'fooling around'. Something had developed, something he hadn't expected at all when they had first met at the bar.

The whole process at the court took several weeks with breaks inbetween and calls to America and other police departments. 

But finally, Keith understood the whole matter which had started with three corpses. 

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Lotor Daiba had some unfinished business with the Americans way before all of this had started. They had met several years ago and did some deals together while Lotor had been abroad and before he had started being a police chief. 

The whole matter ran deep but in the end, Lotor owed this American group something. Martinez threatened him to damage his group – a formation of Lotor's most loyal comrades which had formed within the _Madoushi –_ and maybe the whole group as well, if he didn't follow his demands. 

Moreover, the deal considered not only knives and daggars which were about to be shipped abroad, but a certain type of fermented energy called _Quintessence_ which was valuable for the Americans. Much more than those cheap weapons and which drove them as far as to threaten their former brother in arms. 

And in Lotor's delusion to protect his kin, he obeyed. 

Since Shiro, as the second in command of the _Blades_ and – to Keith surprise – well known among other groups in yakuza circles, was seen as a thorn in the American's eyes, they wanted to get rid of him too. They deemed him as possible danger and ordered Lotor and thus Amano to kill Shiro. This had occured right before the garage-incident. 

The deal was already running and the _Blades_ and the main group of the _Madoushi_ had settled on the conditions. But those conditions were set between the main groups. As soon as Lotor saw that the Americans, and especially Martinez, would be very unhappy with the _Blades_ being a part of it, he tried to call the deal off. He only wanted to have the _Madoushi_ , and if possible, only his own sub-group involved in this. 

The main reason behind him doing so was to have his own people safe and sound. And this was the only thing which got a bit of sympathy from Keith. 

In order to get the _Blades_ out of the deal, Lotor spread the rumour that the _Madoushi_ would kill Shiro at the _Wind Graveyard_. The only thing he didn't seem to be taken into consideration was that Shiro would order to kill the three men since Shiro wanted to protect not only himself but the whole _Blade of Marmora_. 

Thus, the whole thing started and one thing led to another. 

Shiya and Thace, who had been killed at the hospital, had to be taken down at Martinez' disposition. He got to knew that those were connected to the _Blades_ and feared to loose control over the whole deal. Lotor obeyed his order, but it was also revenge for the lifes already taken. 

Keith understood Lotor's action and his act why he wanted to have Shiro killed. But Keith would've never done so. He was relieved that it had turned out like this, but he still lamented the deaths of several _Blades_ and _Madoushi_. 

In the end, Lotor was sent to jail. Martinez and his group were to be considered by the American law but everybody could see that this was going nowhere nicely. 

Antok got probation in form of a supervised release. Since he had tried to protect himself at the incident at the storage house without the intention of killing the man. 

T hace, who had killed the three  _ Madoushi _ at the Wind Graveyard, was dead and no punishment could reach him. 

And Shiro… 

Shiro got probation as well. The court understood that he wanted to protect his people but he also didn't want to endanger the _Madoushi_ but rather tried to investigate himself. Moreover, the crime wasn't executed by himself and in the end he had helped to get Lotor arrested and stop further miseries. 

But the _Blade of Marmora_ had to pay a generous amount due to several damages for pain and suffering on the side of the _Madoushi_. The times were they had worked together side by side would be over as well which was another type of loss. 

In the end, Keith thought that he could live with the decision the court had made in the beginning of Spring. 


	30. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, can't believe that's the end already.

It smelled like sea water and freshly cut grass.

The early summer breeze rushed from the Shikoku islands towards Kobe and brought the heavy aroma of salt and fresh air. The trees along the road facing the station were blooming, the flowerbeds were nicely arranged, and the flower clock showed the current time to the minute.

Clouds painted the blue sky, as they came along the strong wind which promised nice warm weather and a marvellous sunset in the evening.

It had been three months after the last official hearing at the court. Three months, and the normal day to day life had somewhat returned. The rumours about the incidents and the articles about the case about the yakuza involved with the American mafia had settled down. Working as a police officer didn't involve daily reporter with tons of questions anymore.

But the last thing which was about to change hadn't come yet.

It was on this warm summer day, when Keith had been called to the main headquarter of Kobe's police department, located in the southern part of Kobe and close to the sea. After Keith had finished what he had been called for, he could finally step outside again, clutching the paper file close to his chest so that the wind wouldn't rip it off. Kosmo plodded behind him, happily swagging his fluffy tail in the fresh breeze as he looked up to his best friend.

Keith went a few steps and stopped at the small platform right next to the stairs. It had been build in front of the main building with a view onto the ocean and was a nice meeting place, just like today.

Keith sighed, unsure of what to think about the result he had in his hands. But this wasn't his only concern.

"How did you know that I was here?" He asked without turning his head.

Shiro chuckled. He leaned against the railing, his usual black coat danced in the wind. He was smoking a cigarette which's fume was instantaneously blown away by the salty sea wind. Moreover, he wore metallic glasses which gave him a somewhat matured look.

"I asked at the police station you're usually in," Shiro said without sounding smug. But a smile was on his lips as he threw Keith a glance.

The cop made big eyes.

"Really!?"

It wasn't only that he couldn't imagine Shiro, a big buff yakuza, casually walking into the police station asking for the whereabouts of a certain police officer involed with the case which had been in the local media for months. It was rather that he was surprised that they had told him.

"Sure," Shiro said softly. "Why not? I wanted to talk to you and they know that I didn't do anything which was… that wrong. Right? Nothing that bad at least." He shrugged. "It was Hunk," he added.

"I knew it!"

Shiro laughed and Keith couldn't help but join him.

Kosmo sat down on his hindpawsbetween them and looked curiously to Shiro, before nudging his leg, demanding to be petted.

"You're a good boy, right?" Shiro reached out with his free hand and stroke through the dark fur.

 _Right_ , Keith thought, smiling. _It's the first time they meet_.

The he focused on their conversation once more.

"It's not that I didn't want to… meet you." Keith tilted his head and tried to sneak some glances from the side but he immediatly was discovered as Shiro watched him as well. He blushed. "I just… I shouldn't right away and… I just wanted to wait until everybody woldn't...wouldn't..."

"It's okay, Keith. I know a lot happened and maybe this was a good idea. You could've let me know though."

"Sorry." Keith's shoulder slumped and he sighed. Indeed, he could've left a note at the bar or something like this.

"It's alright."

They stood side by side. Keith stared down on the paper file and Shiro kept smoking, one hand buried in Kosmo's neck.

"So," Keith said since he just remembered it. "You said you didn't do anything bad?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at the yakuza.

Shiro smirked. " _You_ tell me, Mr. Police Officer."

Keith chuckled. His words reminded him of the occasion why he had been called to the headquarter. He looked down at the paper he was holding.

"Got a promotion?" Shiro assumed correctly.

"Yes." Keith nodded, his voice soft and quiet.

"Congratulations, I guess."

Keith looked at him. "Thanks, but… It feels like I haven't earned it."

Shiro frowned. "'Cause your boss was bad and you got his rank?"

Keith only nodded.

"Mhmmm." The yakuza stemmed himself up from the railing and faced the police officer properly.

"I wouldn't put this together though. This was your work and his work was his. If he couldn't do it right, so what of it? We suffered some loss as well but this is another story." He smiled bitterly and Keith remembered that Shiro had indeed lost some of his family members in all of this. He suddenly felt worse than before.

Shiro came closer and put his hand on Keith's shoulder.

"It's due to your hard work that you got this promotion you have right here. Keep it and be proud of it, will ya?"

Keith looked up and saw two grey eyes looking proudly at him. It made him feel a bit more conviced than before.

"Thanks, Shiro," he said.

They looked at each other.

"Well." Shiro let go and stubbed out his cigarette in a nearby bin. He looked for a few seconds to the ocean before facing Keith once more while fetching a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his coat.

"Here. In case you need me again."

Keith took it and saw a row of numbers through the thin layer. He looked up and smiled.

"Will I see you again?"

It wasn't a question.

Shiro looked fondly and a smile formed below his scarred nose.

"If you don't mind hanging out with a senior yakuza, to be first in command? Sure." He walked off towards the stairs. But before he descended those, he turned halfway around.

"The usual place," he said, a smile parted his lips and a knowing glance appeared in his eyes.

Keith grinned and nodded.

"Yes," he answered and looked forward to many more meetings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was my yakuza au. Thank you for sticking with it to the very end!   
> I hope the overall story made sense and that the end wasn't too boring.   
> Did the the feeling/vibe of a yakuza-world-aura I wanted to write down came through? Although it's not a romantic story but police-yakuza-dealer-thingy, I think I got some Sheith moments in there. (Ahem, two of the bigger Sheith chapters make up about 1/5 of the whole story, haha. Anyway!..)   
> Thank you for any comments!

**Author's Note:**

> If there is anything you want to tell me, feel free to do so.  
> I'm happy about every comment :)
> 
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> 


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